The Arctic has always been a difficult place to do any extensive monitoring and data collection. Until recently, there have only been a limited number of projects that have taken any significant, long-term, and coordinated observations of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent bodies of water. This is due in part to the extensive sea ice cover that persists over Arctic waters for a good part of the year, which makes it difficult to conduct ship surveys or deploy weather buoys and moorings to measure deep water currents.

Arctic ROOS (Regional Ocean Observing Systems) is an IPY Project (project no. 379: "IPY Operational Oceanography for the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas") that is making an effort to change this trend. Founded in December 2007 by fourteen European institutions from nine European countries working on observing and modelling the Arctic Ocean and other bodies of water in the Arctic, Arctic ROOS will collect and integrate data from in-situ observations, remote sensing and numerical models and data assimilation. The project is contributing to the IPY data legacy by maintaining cost-effective and useful observing systems that will continue after the end of IPY and encouraging the development of programmes that can obtain long-term data on a regular basis.

On the International Polar Foundation's SciencePoles website, Dr. Stein Sandven, Research Director at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC) and coordinator of Arctic ROOS, talks about the IPY project and the future and importance of monitoring the Arctic.