Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) 10-day Sea Ice Charts for the Arctic Ocean
Year: 2026
Type: dataset
Abstract: Digitized sea ice concentration and stages of development grids for the North Polar Basin (Arctic Ocean) are made available via anonymous ftp for both PC/DOS and UNIX users, but can be distributed on floppy diskettes. The data, which are divided into two sections: Western sector (24W to 110E) and Eastern sector (105E to 130W), are part of a vast historic archive starting from the 1930s. At present (February 1995) data is available for 1967 through 1990 for the Eastern sector and 1972 through 1990 for the Western sector; files for 1972 contain data for both sectors. AARI is planning to complete the time series beginning with the 1953 charts by the end of 1995. Data are digitized from integrated sea ice charts generated by the operational division of AARI. The charts are produced through the assimilation and analysis of visual and instrumental aircraft observations and satellite data acquired by AARI over 10 day periods. The data are compiled on 1:1.5 million, 1:2 million and 1:5 million equiangular stereographic and mercator projections at resolutions of 0.1 km for aircraft survey and less than 4 km for satellite imagery. The boundaries are accurate from 2 to 4 km under normal conditions and up to 50 km under the worst conditions. The integrated charts are digitized and stored in SIGRID, the WMO tandard exchange format for digitized sea ice charts. References: Bushuev, A. V., R. G. Barry, V. M. Smolyanitsky, and V. J. Troisi (Steering Group for the Global Digital Sea Ice Data Bank). 1994. Format to Provide Sea Ice Data for the World Climate Program (SIGRID-2). Final version. WMO, Commission for Marine Meteorology. 14p. Environment Canada. 1989. Ice Charts: WMO Symbols for the Hatching of Total Concentration of Ice. Manual of Standard Procedures for Observing and Reporting Ice Conditions. Atmospheric Environment Service. Ottawa, Ontario. 3-21 - 3-31. Environment Canada. 1992. Ice Terminology: Ice Codes and Symbols, Egg Code. MANIS, Manual of Ice Services. Atmospheric Environment Service. Ottawa, Ontario. sect. A.3. Kurskikh, B. A. ed. 1984. International symbols for sea ice charts and sea ice nomenclature. Leningrad, Gidrometeoizdat. Oksenova, E.I. ed. 1981. Rukovodstvo po proizvodstvu ledovoi aviarazvedki [Manual for aerial reconnaissance of ice]. Leningrad, Gidrometeoizdat.WMO. 1989. Sea Ice Nomenclature. WMO-259. Geneva. WMO Commission for Marine Meteorology. 1989. Format for the archival and exchange of sea ice data in digital form (SIGRID). Manual on Marine Meteorological Services. Part II, Recommendation 11, CMM-X. WMO, Geneva, 32p. Deposited content: descriptive metadata only; underlying research data are not included.
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life below water
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7223034451