Existing observational platforms will be activated to their full potential, and additional instrumentation will be deployed and triggered on-demand when the numerical forecasts indicate that extra observations can provide important new information. The existing synoptic network will be the backbone of the campaign, supported by additional instrumentation platforms such as aircraft, ships, ground-based remote sensing systems, flux measurements and tethersonde observations.
Some of the platforms (e.g. radiosonde sites) will intensify the recording frequency when triggered by forecasts of adverse weather. We will establish an observational axis stretching from the Norwegian main land (Andenes), through Bear Island - located in the middle of Barents Sea - to Ny-Ålesund on Spitsbergen. Ny-Ålesund is most of the time located near the ice-edge, and Andenes is on the southern rim of the Barents Sea. East of this axis, we negotiate with Russians to launch radiosondes at Franz Josef Land (or Novaya Zemlya), see below, together with a ship with radiosonde possibilities and measurements of surface fluxes in the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ). To the west, a ship with a standard meteorological platform and frequent radio soundings is under consideration.