The Chinese institute proposed in 2017 to upgrade the aurora observatory to the China-Iceland Arctic Science Observatory that will enable not just aurora observations, but also research on atmosphere, oceanography, glacier, geophysics, remote sensing and biology. The Icelandic side has voiced its full support for the proposal.

The Arctic observatory will help China in its polar research as the country has already set up four research stations in Antarctica and one Arctic research station on Svalbard, Norway.