Pan-Arctic Observatory Network for the Study of Landscape Carbon, Water, and Energy Balance

Funded by the National Science Foundation for International Polar Year

In order to develop a process-level understanding of carbon, water and energy exchanges throughout the circumpolar terrestrial Arctic, datasets from a variety of international projects must be readily available through an integrated public database. It is the intention of this site to provide this data from the projects that are associated with this particular aspect of Arctic Observatory Networks. It is expected that the availability and comparability of relevant datasets be enhanced and that communications and collaborations between international research projects will be improved.

Therefore, this site is committed to the following:

• the collection, archiving and regular maintenance of publically available datasets
• the development of detailed metadata to aid in the understanding of these datasets
• the posting of detailed information about study sites, present and past in formats that are understandable and useful to both researchers and the general public
• the timely display of data and imagery from active projects
• the timely processing of data from active projects
• fostering communication between researchers, students and the public through the posting of analyses, presentations, posters and publications