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Sea ice standards and advisory documents

 

  • The special WMO publication No. 574 “Sea-Ice Information Services in the World” (third version, March 2007) gives summaries for sea ice as natural phenomenon, ice observing methods and informational systems, and includes a comprehensive description of the products and services currently provided by all national ice services (Northern and Southern Hemispheres).
  • The WMO Sea-ice nomenclature (WMO-No. 259, provided in English/French/Russian/Spanish, first published in 1971 with latest additions and corrections introduced in 2004, provides the standards for sea ice terminology and sea ice parameters coding (coding tables and scales) as well as a presentation on ice charts. An electronic version of the nomenclature is available and can be found at the following web address: http://www.aari.nw.ru/gdsidb/XML/nomenclature.asp. During the period of 2002—2006, a draft version for the new “WMO Sea-Ice Nomenclature” was prepared by Dr Andrey Bushuev. It was agreed by the ETSI that proposed version be used as a source to revise and update the WMO publication No. 259 jointly with the ETSI activity during 2005-2007 on harmonization of “Ice Objects Catalogue”.
  • JCOMM Technical Reports– SIGRID 3: a Vector Archive Format for Sea Ice Charts (WMO/TD-No. 1214) and the Ice Chart Colour Code Standard (WMO/TD-No. 1215), both finalized and published in 2004, extend the WMO Sea-Ice nomenclature by providing standards for ice chart coding and presentation. Latest amendments to SIGRID-3 format were agreed by the ETSI-III in March 2007.
  • The Manual on Marine Meteorological Services (WMO-No. 558), Volume I, Part I (4.2.9 Model SI – sea-ice information – charts), had been updated accordingly by the JCOMM-II and now requests that “The "International System of Sea-Ice Symbols (WMO-No. 259, Volume III) and the “Ice Chart Colour Code Standard” (WMO/TD-No. 1214) should be used. The Sea ice climatological information should be provided using SIGRID gridded and vector archive formats for sea ice charts (i.e., WMO-No. 716, WMO-No. 792 and WMO/TD-No. 1214).
  • Ice Objects Catalogue for ENC

(Last Updated: 05-09-2008)