| Summary: | 2019 Living Planet Symposium, 13-17 May 2019, Milan, Italy The large changes in Arctic and Antarctic climate, on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere, are contributing to an ‘opening up’ of the Polar Regions that has important socio-economic, environmental and security implications. The Arctic Ocean will be increasingly accessible and more broadly used by those seeking the its abundant resources and trade routes. Whilst it may be remote, it is home to some 4 million people and has a US$ 230 billion a year economy and its potential is enormous. In the Antarctic, fisheries and tourism are rapidly developing. Both Polar Regions remain a challenging operating environment with a harsh climate with sea ice and icebergs as a significant natural hazard that requires the need to; improve domain awareness, through EO services and products, to ensure the safe and efficient operations, including Search-and-Rescue (SaR), strong development of the predictive and monitoring capability for key climate indicators such sea ice extent and thickness, and further integration of the European Union’s policy for the Arctic as laid out in their Joint Communication To The European Parliament And The Council. KEPLER is a multi-partner initiative, built around the operational European Ice Services and Copernicus information providers, to prepare a roadmap for Copernicus to deliver an improved European capacity for monitoring and forecasting the Polar Regions. Following the recommendations of the ‘Copernicus User Uptake’ review, KEPLER has 4 themes of; 1) raising awareness for the Copernicus programme, 2) informing and educating Copernicus users, 3) engaging Copernicus users in public and private sector, and 4) enabling access to Copernicus data and information. These themes form the core components of KEPLER. However, as the Polar Regions are changing, so too are the challenges and opportunities. Because of these shifts there are two additional themes that encompass the evolving needs; 5) identification of research gaps regarding ...
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