@article {RN111,
	title = {Polar Ocean Observations: A Critical Gap in the Observing System and Its Effect on Environmental Predictions From Hours to a Season},
	journal = {Frontiers in Marine Science},
	volume = {6},
	year = {2019},
	pages = {429},
	type = {Journal Article},
	abstract = {There is a growing need for operational oceanographic predictions in both the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions. In the former, this is driven by a declining ice cover accompanied by an increase in maritime traffic and exploitation of marine resources. Oceanographic predictions in the Antarctic are also important, both to support Antarctic operations and also to help elucidate processes governing sea ice and ice shelf stability. However, a significant gap exists in the ocean observing system in polar regions, compared to most areas of the global ocean, hindering the reliability of ocean and sea ice forecasts. This gap can also be seen from the spread in ocean and sea ice reanalyses for polar regions which provide an estimate of their uncertainty. The reduced reliability of polar predictions may affect the quality of various applications including search and rescue, coupling with numerical weather and seasonal predictions, historical reconstructions (reanalysis), aquaculture and environmental management including environmental emergency response. Here, we outline the status of existing near-real time ocean observational efforts in polar regions, discuss gaps, and explore perspectives for the future. Specific recommendations include a renewed call for open access to data, especially real-time data, as a critical capability for improved sea ice and weather forecasting and other environmental prediction needs. Dedicated efforts are also needed to make use of additional observations made as part of the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP; 2017{\textendash}2019) to inform optimal observing system design. To provide a polar extension to the Argo network, it is recommended that a network of ice-borne sea ice and upper-ocean observing buoys be deployed and supported operationally in ice-covered areas together with autonomous profiling floats and gliders (potentially with ice detection capability) in seasonally ice covered seas. Finally, additional efforts to better measure and parameterize surface exchanges in polar regions are much needed to improve coupled environmental prediction.},
	keywords = {air-sea-ice fluxes, forecasting, ocean data assimilation, ocean modeling, operational oceanography, polar observations, sea ice, YOPP},
	issn = {2296-7745},
	doi = {10.3389/fmars.2019.00429},
	url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2019.00429},
	author = {Smith, Gregory C. and Allard, Richard and Babin, Marcel and Bertino, Laurent and Chevallier, Matthieu and Corlett, Gary and Crout, Julia and Davidson, Fraser and Delille, Bruno and Gille, Sarah T. and Hebert, David and Hyder, Patrick and Intrieri, Janet and Lagunas, Jos{\'e} and Larnicol, Gilles and Kaminski, Thomas and Kater, Belinda and Kauker, Frank and Marec, Claudie and Mazloff, Matthew and Metzger, E. Joseph and Mordy, Calvin and O{\textquoteright}Carroll, Anne and Olsen, Steffen M. and Phelps, Michael and Posey, Pamela and Prandi, Pierre and Rehm, Eric and Reid, Phillip and Rigor, Ignatius and Sandven, Stein and Shupe, Matthew and Swart, Sebastiaan and Smedstad, Ole Martin and Solomon, Amy and Storto, Andrea and Thibaut, Pierre and Toole, John and Wood, Kevin and Xie, Jiping and Yang, Qinghua and Group, the Wwrp P. P. P. Steering}
}
