A few weeks ago, many Arctic researchers, Indigenous Peoples and other actors around the Arctic were gathered at the Arctic Circle Assembly 2025 in Reykjavik, in Iceland, to discuss about Arctic issues and to meet other people studying or living in the Arctic. There were about 2000 participants from 70 different countries. The venue, Harpa concert hall and conference centre, was as astonishing as last time.
A three-day conference consisted of planery sessions, smaller sessions and meetings. On the first day, in the plenary session, the Chairman of Arctic Circle, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, gave a welcome speech and after that there were presentations for example by The Princess Takamado of Japan and Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Elina Valtonen, from Finland. The Princess showed her amazing photos of birds to the audience while keeping her keynote speech where you could feel her love for nature.
In the evening, there was a welcome reception hosted by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister of Iceland. Besides networking with other participants of the conference, there was a chance to enjoy music by Jon Jonsson.
In Arctic Circle Assembly, there were so many exciting sessions and wonderful speakers that it was hard to choose what to go to see. Here is just a glance of some sessions that we were involved in and happy to participate in. On the second morning, At the session of Supporting Arctic communities addressing wildfire and air quality concerns, Mikko Strahlendorff from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) gave a presentation about Crowdsourcing Observations for Wildfires and Trafficability – A Wildfire SAV outcome. In addition, Vito Vitale from National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISP) talked about INFRA Service in Arctic PASSION project and there were also presentations about AURORAE Service in Arctic PASSION by Joint Research Centre (JRC) and about Emergency Response Management: Role of Efficient Science and Decision-making communication by a researcher from the University of Lapland.
Later that day, there was a side event near Harpa, where permafrost session, wildfire session and Arctic ROADS (Roadmap for Arctic Observing and Data Systems) Advisory Panel and Partner meeting took place. Wildfire session had presentations by Mikko Strahlendorff from FMI about Arctic PASSION Shared Arctic Variable (SAV) and the new Finnish Arctic Wildfires and Trafficability-project. In addition, there was a presentation by Miska Kauppinen from Spatineo about Water in your boots mobile application and results from summer season 2025. Also comments from the Finnish Wildfire SAV Indigenous Experts by Janne Näkkäläjärvi and Mika Aromäki, update of Wildland fires work under the Arctic Council (Wildland Fire Initiative) by Ed Alexander from the Gwich’in Council International (GCI) and an update on Arctic Council Working Group projects by Nina Ågren (Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response, EPPR), Courtney Price (Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, CAFF) and Devlin Fernandes (GCI) were presented and it led to fascinating discussions on important topics related to wildfires. Indigenous participants from both Finland and North America discussed the importance of wildfire observations.
The ROADS meeting consisted of introduction to SAON ROADS and SAV process, the progress reports from Expert Panels of Harmful Algal Blooms, Permafrost, Sea Ice, Wildfire and Salmon, and presentations about Funding of in-situ observing and Arctic Science Funders Forum and the non-Arctic perspective.
Plenary session on the third day, on Saturday, had interesting presentations, for example by Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Chair of the NATO Military Committee.
In addition to the sessions, there were also exhibitions, for instance the photo exhibition by artist Saara Lilja from Emergenssi Ltd with 18 beautiful photos to elaborate conversation about the Arctic environment and the relationship of art and science.
There was a booth by the Finnish Meteorological Institute where we told about Arctic PASSION project and Water in Your Boots mobile application. We also presented SAON ROADS and had fruitful discussion with participants around the world and made connections with people working related to wildfires as well.
At the shore, next to Harpa, there was the Tara Polar Explorer ship, that participants could visit. The crew member said that the ship will be coming to Finland next, so welcome and maybe we see it again.
On Saturday night, the day culminated with the magnificent Northern lights over Reykjavik. Hopefully we will get back there one day.
