CCNY-led NASA Arctic coastal mission earns UN Decade Project endorsement

The “Arctic Coastlines-FORTE” mission, a $15 million NASA-funded initiative led by City College of New York Professor Maria Tzortziou to study the changing Coastal Arctic and impacts on coastal resources, ecosystems, food security, and coastal communities, has earned UNESCO designation as a UN Ocean Decade Project.

FORTE is one of the latest additions to Ocean Decade Projects deemed by the UN to strengthening international scientific cooperation in the Southern Ocean, Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean, and contributing to the ‘Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025-2034)’ and the International Polar Year 2032-2033. These Projects focus on diverse topics, from Antarctic sailing expeditions to advanced ocean observing systems in the Alaskan Arctic and research on zero-emission ice-thickening technologies. 

FORTE (short for “Frontlines of Rapidly Transforming Ecosystems,”) began this January and runs through March 31, 2030. UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission [IOC] cited it as: “a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital (EVS-4) Mission that will apply cutting-edge ocean observing technologies and state-of-the-art models to explore the remote and rapidly transforming ecosystem of the coastal Alaskan Arctic and how environmental change is impacting this region and beyond.”

The UN agency noted that, “over a period of four years, and combining observations from airplanes, satellites, helicopters, research vessels and drones, FORTE will increase understanding of the interconnected hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological processes along the Arctic land-river-ocean aquatic continuum, one of the most critical areas on Earth for energy resources, transportation, subsistence, security, biodiversity and cultural heritage.

“FORTE is founded on strong collaborations with local, national, and international partners, and has been developed through collaborative work with Alaskan Native communities to support their needs and codevelop innovative solutions.”

CCNY President Vincent G. Boudreau lauded the UN’s “wonderful recognition” of Tzortziou’s work and the impact the mission will have on humanity’s understanding of ocean health and climate change. “I’ve always thought that the real important work we do at CCNY—from teaching to research to community engagement—needs to be measured in the impact we make on the most pressing problems we face as a society and a species.”

The Martin and Michele Cohen Endowed Professor of Environmental Sciences at CCNY’s Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI), Tzortziou’s FORTE project entails observing changes in river systems on the North Slope of Alaska. It is one of six NASA-funded airborne missions designed to use novel, high-resolution observations from aircraft to complement what scientists can see from orbit, measure from the ground, and simulate in computer models. 

FORTE’s Science Team brings together experts from 18 leading institutions, including the Alfred Wegener Institute, City University of New York, Columbia University, Duke University, Florida State University, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the US Naval Research Lab, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and many others. 

About Maria Tzortziou 
In addition to her position as the Martin and Michele Cohen Endowed Professor of Environmental Sciences at CDI, Tzortziou is Director of Research and Applications at the CREST Remote Sensing Earth Institute. She is also Affiliate Professor with Columbia University/LDEO, and Senior Research Scientist at NASA Goddard, where she serves as the Deputy Program Applications Lead for NASA’s PACE satellite mission and the Applied Science Lead for GLIMR, NASA’s first geostationary hyperspectral ocean color mission. Tzortziou has led numerous field campaigns across a range of environments, from the tropics to the Arctic. Her research integrates advanced satellite remote sensing technologies with multidisciplinary datasets and models to assess human-ecosystem interactions, and the impact of multiple environmental stressors on the biogeochemistry, ecology, and biodiversity of inland and ocean ecosystems. Tzortziou has served as an expert on numerous interagency advisory and leadership boards relevant to ocean science, marine technology, and policy, including the Science Steering Committee for the Ocean Carbon Biogeochemistry Program, the Science leadership Board for the North American Carbon Program, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, and the National Ocean Research Advisory Panel that provides independent recommendations to the Federal Government on matters of ocean policy.