The Climate Change Tower Integrated Project (CCT-IP) and the multidisciplinary observing activities of Italy at Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard) since 2009

The relaunch in 2008-2009 of the Italian activities at the Arctic station of the CNRDirigibile Italia (DI) in a broadly multidisciplinary key will be widely presented in terms ofconceptual approaches and overall strategy. In the last 15 years, observing activities havebeen widely expanded and diversified, extending and integrating the three multidisciplinaryobservation platforms implemented between 2008 and 2010 as part of the "Climate ChangeTower Integrated Project" (CCT-IP). The development of the observing program has alwaysfollowed the dual objective of contributing to the growth of Ny Alesund as an observingsuper-site, highlighting its uniqueness in the panorama of research stations in the Arctic, andon the other hand allowing us to observe and study the Kongsfjorden area in an Earth SystemScience perspective. The main research topics developed in recent years will be presentedthrough some of the most important results achieved by the different research groups thatcontributed and are contributing to this integrated effort. The importance of internationalcollaboration will be also highlighted. Finally, the possible prospects in the short and mediumterm for the Italian research activities in Ny Alesund and Svalbard area, also as contributionto SIOS, will be presented/proposed.