Observation the community governs

01Field scene

A station sized for the north.

A northern station runs on a solar and battery microgrid with a long polar night, reaches the world through a satellite terminal, and keeps time from a geodetic receiver. Every part is chosen for the season it must survive, not for the brochure.

What it measures, weather, permafrost, sea ice and snow, matters first to the people who travel, hunt and build there.

Figure as text: A northern station: microgrid, satellite terminal, weather and GNSS

A wireframe station on flat ground: a solar and battery microgrid, a satellite user terminal, an automatic weather station, a geodetic GNSS monument and an edge node, with dashed red links.

• Microgrid
• Satellite terminal
• Weather
• GNSS
• Edge node

02Systems diagram

The data passes through the community first.

First Nations principles of ownership, control, access and possession¹ and the CARE principles of collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility and ethics² lead to one architectural rule: the community’s steward sits between the station and everyone else.

Inuit research policy asks the same of science in Inuit Nunangat³. In the diagram, an agency can only read what the steward publishes; cut the steward’s link and nothing flows outward by default.

Figure as text: Data flows with a community steward between the station and the outside

A four-tier diagram: station instruments, the community edge, the community data steward, and outside users (agencies and researchers). All routes outward pass through the steward.

• Instruments: Weather, Permafrost, Sea ice
• Community edge: Edge node
• Community steward: Data steward
• Outside users: Agency, Researchers

6 links. Scenarios: Steward publishes; Steward withholds.

03Timeline to 2030

Principles that became policy.

The United Nations declaration affirms Indigenous peoples’ right to maintain, control and develop their knowledge⁴; Canada’s 2021 Act commits the federal government to align its laws with it⁵. For an observing network, that alignment is a design requirement, not a courtesy.

Figure as text: Indigenous data governance, from declaration to law

A timeline from 2007 to 2030 of declarations, principles and laws on Indigenous data governance.

1. 2007-09 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Adopted by the General Assembly.⁴
2. 2014 OCAP principles registered (OCAP®). Ownership, control, access and possession, stewarded by FNIGC (First Nations Information Governance Centre).¹
3. 2018-03 National Inuit Strategy on Research. Inuit self-determination in research, including access to and ownership of data.³
4. 2020 CARE principles published. Collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility and ethics.²
5. 2021-06 Canada’s UNDRIP Act in force. Federal laws to be aligned with the declaration, under an action plan.⁵

04Simulator

Power through the polar night.

With the sun below the horizon for weeks, a station lives on its battery. Set peak sun hours to zero and see how long the store lasts at the station’s load; then add a winter’s worth of capacity.

Figure as text: Battery autonomy through the polar night

A line chart of stored energy over fourteen days falling steadily to the reserve with no solar input.