# Presentation: 359817

## National Ice Center 

*Data Collection*

- RADARSAT Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) is received at the NIC from Tromso, Norway; Gatineau and Prince Albert, Canada; Fairbanks, Alaska; and West Freugh, Scotland to provide near complete Arctic coverage. The RADARSAT ScanSAR wide mode provides a 500 km wide swath width at 100 meter spatial resolution. Pixel averaging is performed on images from select ground stations to decrease image size thereby facilitating faster communication. RADARSAT can image every point on the earth’s surface north of 65 N at least once per day.

- Cloud covered regions are imaged using 25 km Special Sensor Microwave/ Imager (SSM/I) data. Brightness temperature is processed daily , using ice algorithms, to produce a 25 km gridded mosaic graphic. This product is used in conjunction with other image data to characterize overall ice conditions

- Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data is received from the NOAA Tiros-N  series of satellites in both the visible and infrared spectrums. AVHRR data has spatial resolution of 1.1 km and is received in the High Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT) and the Local Area Coverage (LAC) modes daily.

- U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Line Scan (OLS) fine data is received digitally via an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) link in both the visible and infrared spectrum. DMSP OLS fine has spatial resolution of .55 km and is received daily at the NIC.

- Aerial  Ice Reconnaissance data is available from the Navy component of the NIC, the Canadian Ice Service and  the Danish Meteorological Institute’s reconnaissance programs. This data serves to provide excellent ground truth information.

- The Polar Ice Prediction System (PIPS 2.0) is a coupled ice-ocean model run daily at the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) to create one to five day forecasts of ice thickness, ice drift and ice concentration. These can be displayed as overlays on ice charts or digital images to provide guidance on current and forecast ice features.

- All imagery received at the NIC is formatted and warped to a common projection for display in near-real time.

## National Ice Center 

*Analysis*

- Analysts use NSIPS to display, manipulate and digitize RADARSAT, NOAA AVHRR  and PIPS 2.0 ice parameters.

- DMSP SSM/I

- DMSP OLS

- Ice Reconnaissance data

- NOAA AVHRR

- PIPS 2.0

- RADARSAT

- Custom software tools in Arc View allow analysts to color code based on source type, also providing another form of metadata for the end user. Once in ARC/INFO, analysts can underlay other sources of data to further refine the final analysis, to include previous weeks’ analyses, climatologies, and ancillary point data such as in-situ observations. The analysis is finalized and an updated ARC/INFO coverage is created. At this point the vector files are sent back to NSIPS and the analysis lines are loaded onto a base map, labeled using the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) international ice symbology known as the “egg code”, and saved as GIF files for distribution.

- SeaSpace Corporation’s Teravision/Terascan workstations are used to analyze DMSP OLS and SSM/I data. The analysis lines are sent directly to the Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Satellite Image Processing System (NSIPS).

- Each “egg” depicts the attribute data associated with a polygon. It is possible to depict up to fifteen unique attributes using the WMO egg code. This attribute data is converted to an attribute table by means of a translator. Quality control for any tagging errors is then performed using ARC/VIEW and the analysis production cycle is complete.

- Analysts integrate vector lines derived from all data sources and join these lines with a regional trim mask.  These elements form the basis for producing a topological GIS coverage in ARC/INFO.

## National Ice Center 

*Products and Dissemination*

- Current weekly ice analysis products are available on the NIC homepage in both GIF and ARC/INFO formats for the Arctic, Antarctic and ice covered regions in North America (ie. Great Lakes, Chesapeake and Delaware Bays).

**Tactical Display for ice navigation**

**Marine Resource management tool**

- http://www.natice.noaa.gov

- Selina M. Nauman
- and
- Lt. Kyle Dedrick