ARCFISH partner IOPAN contributes to Arctic–Subarctic ocean workshop (ASOF-2026)

ARCFISH partner the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAN) contributed to the 24th Arctic–Subarctic Ocean Fluxes (ASOF) workshop 21-23 April, Bergen, Norway, bringing decades of observations of Atlantic and Arctic water circulation to the international scientific gathering.

Agnieszka Beszczynska-Möller presented research on, “Variability of the Atlantic water from the eastern Nordic Seas towards the Arctic Ocean from the IOPAN long-term program AREX (1997–2025) and moorings north of Svalbard (2012–2024)”, drew on almost three decades of observations from IOPAN's long-term AREX programme, together with more than a decade of mooring observations north of Svalbard. Arctic-Subarctic ocean fluxes.

The work contributes to understanding how Atlantic water entering the Arctic varies over time. Atlantic water transports heat northwards through the Nordic seas, with branches continuing towards the Barents Sea and through Fram Strait into the Arctic Ocean. Changes in its properties and circulation are therefore an important component of the changing physical environment of the European Arctic.

IOPAN's expertise in long-term Arctic ocean observations also plays an important role in ARCFISH. Within the project, IOPAN leads the work on data ingestion services, developing pipelines that bring physical oceanographic observations from research vessels, autonomous and fixed platforms, drifting buoys and other sources into the ARCFISH Digital Twin environment. IOPAN is also leading the development of environmental time-series products for sustainable fisheries. Physical and biogeochemical observations from the water column are combined with selected model and reanalysis outputs to provide the environmental context needed to interpret fisheries data and identify relevant spatial and temporal patterns.

Understanding how Atlantic water and other ocean conditions vary across the Nordic seas and Arctic Ocean provides important context for assessing the changing environments in which Arctic fisheries operate. Through ARCFISH, this type of oceanographic information is being made more accessible alongside other environmental, ecosystem and fisheries data within a Digital Twin of the Ocean.

**Cover photo: AI-generated