As such, iAOOS is not a funded program in its own right but a pan-arctic framework designed to achieve optimal coordination of funded projects during the IPY. It has a Science Plan (see Dickson, 2006) based on the >1150 Expressions of Interest received by the IPY; reflecting these proposals, its main concern is with arctic change, including all aspects of the role of the Northern Seas in Climate, and it draws its primary focus on the present state and future fate of the Arctic Ocean perennial sea-ice.

The 2008 report follows that of 2007 in concentrating largely on the physical oceanography of iAOOS, but with a rather more diverse set of aims. As last year, the principal objective is to provide a concise
account of the activities of the main iAOOS flagship projects during 2008 - cruises taken,instrumentation deployed, measurements made - together with a summary description of additional work planned in 2009. As last year, and again with the cooperation of PIs, a second component of the report describes first results, concentrating in particular on cases, which demonstrate the validity of an iAOOS program for the IPY. As iAOOS completes its second year, however, it is appropriate to identify two new things: first, ways in which the results of iAOOS are being applied, both to the understanding of ecosystem change and in the development of models; second, to use what has been learned during the IPY to define which observational tasks and methods should be sustained into the so-called IPY legacy phase. These two new issues form the third and fourth main tasks of the 2008 report.

The 2008 version of the integrated Arctic Ocean Observing System report is now available here.