The “Arctic Coastlines-FORTE” mission, a $15 million NASA-funded project led by City College of New York Professor Maria Tzortziou, has been recognized as a United Nations Ocean Decade Project, according to an April 29 announcement. The initiative aims to study the rapidly changing Arctic coastline and its effects on resources, ecosystems, food security, and local communities.
This recognition by UNESCO highlights the importance of international scientific cooperation in polar regions. FORTE is part of efforts contributing to the ‘Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025-2034)’ and will play a role in preparations for the International Polar Year 2032-2033. The project employs advanced technologies and collaborations with local partners to address pressing environmental challenges.
FORTE began in January and is scheduled to continue through March 31, 2030. UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission described 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 agency also noted that FORTE combines observations from airplanes, satellites, helicopters, research vessels, and drones over four years to improve understanding of key ecological processes along the Arctic land-river-ocean continuum.
The project was developed with input from Alaskan Native communities. According to UNESCO: “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.”
City College President Vincent G. Boudreau said about Tzortziou’s work: “I’ve always thought that the real impact of the work we do on campus—from our teaching to our research to our outreach—needs to be measured in the extent to which we’re making an impact on the most pressing problems we face as a society and a species.”
Tzortziou leads a team involving experts from institutions such as Columbia University, Duke University, Florida State University, MIT, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center among others. Her research focuses on using satellite remote sensing technology alongside multidisciplinary data sets for studying human impacts on ecosystems across various environments.
As FORTE progresses over its planned duration through 2030 under UN endorsement it may provide new insights into climate change impacts at high latitudes while fostering further collaboration between scientists worldwide.
