EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- Meteorological and oceanographic (METOC) experts from across different branches, NATO partners, local academia, scientists and other representatives, gathered in Fairbanks, Alaska, for the 2026 Arctic METOC Partnership Summit (AMPS).
The summit aims to improve Arctic weather forecasting to enhance security, safety and operational effectiveness throughout the region. This year’s summit focused on solving two main points: creating a standardized approach for predicting weather and ocean conditions across the region and developing the specialized training required to forecast its unpredictable environment.
“From the tactical level, this is our direct link to the products and services we use to keep the mission going,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. William Ledbetter, 1st Combat Weather Squadron Detachment 3 senior enlisted leader. “For both Fort Wainwright and Eielson, we use and consume satellite data that the people in this summit have created. Having this event allows for us to have direct interaction from the bottom up, enabling direct feedback and better communication to help improve the products we use.”
The unique challenges of the Arctic's extreme and remote environment directly impact the reliability of weather forecasting. Due to these harsh conditions and a lack of sufficient data, standard forecasting models that work well in other regions are often unreliable.
“We all have our own jobs to do, so being able to speak with the innovators of programs that help us stay ahead of the curve helps a lot,” said U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Brandon Flores, 1st CWS DET 3 aviation weather operations officer in charge. “We’re not the only ones that experience these challenges, both our allies and adversaries can be facing these issues, so staying on top of these challenges is important to us.”
The Arctic METOC Partnership Summit is about forging collaborations to overcome shared challenges. This event helps to unite military forecasters with civilian researchers from institutions like the University of Alaska Fairbanks, government agencies and NATO partners, which helps to accelerate innovation and prevent duplicated efforts.
“By reaching out to our NATO partners, it allows us to see if they have had similar problems in their mission sets in the Arctic and they may have a solution to it,” said Gail Weaver, 611th Air Operations Squadron meteorologist. “Our missions in the Arctic are so unpredictable and differ between our branches that we can’t do this by ourselves; we need events like this to help create solutions to our problems.”
This summit forges a direct feedback pipeline between Arctic weather squadrons and their program developers, enhancing the predictive accuracy essential for successful Arctic missions.
“The Arctic is a strategic place and important for both homeland defense and our allied NATO nation’s strategic involvement around the Arctic Circle,” said Weaver. “By having this summit, we are creating partnerships to try and provide better products to the war fighter and improve our capabilities in the Arctic.”