Europe's Earth observation, satellite navigation and communications missions and services for the benefit of the Arctic : inventory of current and future capabilities, their synergies and societal benefits

Both the Arctic and Space are important policy topics for the EU, with recently defined strategies and programs. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre has recently completed a study upon the request of the Directorate Defense Industry and Space (DEFIS) aiming at identifying the synergies across the four domains of the EU Space Programme. This study surveys the EU's space-based capabilities, related to Earth observation (EO), navigation, communication and space monitoring, and highlights their current and potential future relevance for users in the Arctic. The user-needs across the four main domains are provided, covering the maritime sector, disaster risk management, monitoring essential climate variables and regulatory compliance, search and rescue services, communications and satellite service disruption. Users cover both science and operational users but also indigenous and local community users. Challenges are then discussed related to the different domains of applications. Then, the study provides a large inventory of the current and future (i.e. next decade) European capacities in the Arctic. Finally, it discusses promising synergistic uses of space assets and applications, and presents a brief societal impact assessment. These synergies are expected to be key enablers of new services that will have a high societal impact in the region, which could be developed in a more cost-efficient and rapid manner. Similarly, synergies will also help exploiting operational services that are already deployed in the Arctic. The study is based on discussions with various international experts from Academy to Industry from several areas, and on an extensive literature review covering high-quality sources. The study aims at reinforcing the efficiency of existing and future capabilities for the Arctic users and to improve the connectivity.