A 2017 update of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) publication WMO-No.574 ‘Sea Ice Information Services in the World’ has now been released.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) publication ‘Sea Ice Information Services in the World’ (WMO-No.574) is intended to provide to mariners and other users information on best practices in sea-ice services available world-wide and by this is formally extending the two WMO publications No.9, Volume D – Information for Shipping and No.558 – Manual on Marine Meteorological Services (WMO-No. 558).
The 2017 update of this comprehensive document has now been released by the Joint World Meteorological Organization/Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (WMO-IOC JCOMM) Expert Team on Sea Ice (ETSI). The document reflects new types of sea ice and icebergs information, forms of collaboration and delivery of the products through August 2017. Areas that have seen substantial progress over the last seven years are the complementation of classical ice services by sea-ice forecasts based on numerical models and Southern Ocean sea ice and icebergs analysis, which are reflected by corresponding additions to the document by numerous ice services. The document greatly facilitates getting an overview on current sea-ice services - just in time for the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) research community which is currently ramping up concerted efforts to improve our capabilities to forecast weather, climate, and sea ice in the polar regions.
The document and future updates can be obtained from 'WMO-IOC JCOMM Sea-Ice Regulatory Documents', subsection 'Sea-Ice Information Services in the World'. Additional requests on JCOMM sea-ice regulatory material may be also forwarded to ETSI chair Dr Vasily Smolyanitsky (vms(at)aari.aq).