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C. BERTOJA, J. FALKINGHAM, F. FETTERER
The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute has issued ice reports in
text and ice code since 1928. Ice information is required by a Swedish national policy to keep all Swedish harbors open throughout the year. Ice support products (Fig.
3) are based primarily on NOAA AVHRR imagery, but are occasionally supplemented by ERS-l/-2 SAR, aerial reconnaissance, and ground based observations.
The German Ice Service is based in Hamburg and operates under the auspices of
the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. Its roots are over 100 years old, dating back to a governmental mandate to the Deutsche Seewarte requiring that seafarers be informed of ice conditions and their effect on navigation conditions in German harbors and coastal waters. Since 1927, a network of ice observers has reported local ice conditions in the international Baltic Sea Ice Code. After World War II,
responsibility for sea ice services shifted to the German Maritime Institute, which
was replaced in 1946 by the German Hydrographic Institute. The Hydrographic
Institute was renamed Bundesamt fUr Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH) in
1990. In 1991, BSH assumed responsibility for the region of the former German
Democratic Republic, creating one national German Ice Service. The BSH maintains
a digital ice chart archive for the period from 1960 to the present in addition to providing near-real-time ice charts covering the German coastal areas and the entire
Baltic Sea. Upon request, German vessels may obtain special reports and forecasts
of global ice conditions.
Ice analysis software developed at the Finnish Technical Research Centre was
hosted on HP 9000 workstations at the three Baltic Ice Service Centers (Finnish,
Swedish, and German) in the winter of 1992/93. This versatile image processing
workstation allows analysis of NOAA and ERS satellite images in conjunction with
climatological ice charts for the production of a new standard ice product. Ice algorithms for SAR interpretation include an ice/no ice discriminator; an algorithm
depicting levels of ice roughness was recently added.
10.3.4
Japan
Ice observation in Japan began in January of 1892 at local observatories in Abashiri and
Nemuro on the island of Hokkaido. With the addition of satellite data in 1966 the first
sea ice charts were issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency. Severe ice conditions in
the southern Sea of Okhotsk crushed a fleet of fishing vessels in the Kuril Islands in
1970, initiating the routine issue of sea ice information by radio facsimile. Ice products
(Fig. 4) are currently produced under the sponsorship of the Japan Meteorological
Agency using manual analysis techniques on PC and Unix-based workstations. Images
from the Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS), NOAA, Marine Observation
Satellites (MOS-l), LANDSAT, and DMSP satellites are supplemented by visual observations from ship and aircraft and shore-based millimeter band radars along the north
coast of Hokkaido.
C. BERTOJA, J. FALKINGHAM, F. FETTERER
The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute has issued ice reports in
text and ice code since 1928. Ice information is required by a Swedish national policy to keep all Swedish harbors open throughout the year. Ice support products (Fig.
3) are based primarily on NOAA AVHRR imagery, but are occasionally supplemented by ERS-l/-2 SAR, aerial reconnaissance, and ground based observations.
The German Ice Service is based in Hamburg and operates under the auspices of
the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. Its roots are over 100 years old, dating back to a governmental mandate to the Deutsche Seewarte requiring that seafarers be informed of ice conditions and their effect on navigation conditions in German harbors and coastal waters. Since 1927, a network of ice observers has reported local ice conditions in the international Baltic Sea Ice Code. After World War II,
responsibility for sea ice services shifted to the German Maritime Institute, which
was replaced in 1946 by the German Hydrographic Institute. The Hydrographic
Institute was renamed Bundesamt fUr Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH) in
1990. In 1991, BSH assumed responsibility for the region of the former German
Democratic Republic, creating one national German Ice Service. The BSH maintains
a digital ice chart archive for the period from 1960 to the present in addition to providing near-real-time ice charts covering the German coastal areas and the entire
Baltic Sea. Upon request, German vessels may obtain special reports and forecasts
of global ice conditions.
Ice analysis software developed at the Finnish Technical Research Centre was
hosted on HP 9000 workstations at the three Baltic Ice Service Centers (Finnish,
Swedish, and German) in the winter of 1992/93. This versatile image processing
workstation allows analysis of NOAA and ERS satellite images in conjunction with
climatological ice charts for the production of a new standard ice product. Ice algorithms for SAR interpretation include an ice/no ice discriminator; an algorithm
depicting levels of ice roughness was recently added.
10.3.4
Japan
Ice observation in Japan began in January of 1892 at local observatories in Abashiri and
Nemuro on the island of Hokkaido. With the addition of satellite data in 1966 the first
sea ice charts were issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency. Severe ice conditions in
the southern Sea of Okhotsk crushed a fleet of fishing vessels in the Kuril Islands in
1970, initiating the routine issue of sea ice information by radio facsimile. Ice products
(Fig. 4) are currently produced under the sponsorship of the Japan Meteorological
Agency using manual analysis techniques on PC and Unix-based workstations. Images
from the Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS), NOAA, Marine Observation
Satellites (MOS-l), LANDSAT, and DMSP satellites are supplemented by visual observations from ship and aircraft and shore-based millimeter band radars along the north
coast of Hokkaido.