Operational Support

Operational Support during the YOPP Special Observing Periods in the Arctic

The YOPP Coordination Office is keen to support Arctic* field campaigns which are going to take place during the Year of Polar Prediction, in particular those campaigns that have been endorsed by YOPP (for more information on YOPP-endorsed activities see the YOPP Explorer). One way to assist colleagues while in the field is to provide and promote opportunities for operational support as delivered by different weather and ice services.

Below is a list of statements by a number of operational services, in particular related to weather and sea-ice information, outlining what services they offer and how they can be approached. Some of the statements are complemented with links to useful products that can be obtained regularly from the internet.

Operational services that would like to offer similar products or services are invited to contact us at office@polarprediction.net.

*Similarly to the operational support for the Arctic Special Observing Periods during YOPP, a list of different weather and ice services that offer operational support during the Special Observing Period in the Southern Hemisphere will be made available in due course.

Environment and Climate Change Canada

The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) of Environment and Climate Change Canada has a wide range of experience supplying weather, marine and ice information services to aid specific science based operations in and around Canada’s North and Arctic land and marine environments. The MSC is willing to discuss providing specific services if needed for targeted YOPP activities in the field, especially during YOPP Special Observing Periods. The support could be based on the dissemination of existing services and capabilities and/or potentially enhanced services with the understanding that this would be contingent on resources available at the time. In order to examine which service requirements can be addressed and how to best respond to them, please add to your request as much detail as possible to the precise information that would be helpful to your monitoring activity. Please address your request to Paul Pestieau paul.pestieau(at)canada.ca.

Relevant websites:

For ice charts: https://www.ec.gc.ca/glaces-ice/

For weather: http://weather.gc.ca/

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 states. ECMWF is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service, producing and disseminating numerical weather predictions to its Member States. These data are fully available to the national meteorological services in the Member States. The Centre also offers a catalogue of forecast data that can be purchased by businesses worldwide and other commercial customers, as well as provided via Research Licences. If you are interested in obtaining a research licence to receive real time data, web charts, or archive data to support your YOPP project, then please contact data.services@ecmwf.int providing details of the project to be completed and the parameters and datasets that you require.
Please note that if you are based in a Country that is an ECMWF Member or Co-operating State (http://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/who-we-are/member-states), we will not be able to provide data directly to you. You will need to get in touch with one of our catalogue contact points who will be able to discuss with you requirements and costs. You can contact any of the people in the list here: https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/contact-us/catalogue-contact-points.
Information of the real-time datasets available can be found here: https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/catalogue-ecmwf-real-time-products.

Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Russian Federation)

Federal Service for hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring (Roshydromet) has required capacity and experience in provision of services in Eurasian Arctic. The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute  (AARI, St.Petersburg) has the leading role in customized weather and ice support for marine traffic and science operations in Russian Arctic and adjacent river and land  areas since 1920 and from 1950-s in the Antarctic. Hydrometcenter Moscow and RIHMI-WDC (Obninsk) extend the Arctic services in parts of numerical modeling and data management including the WMO GTS /WIS and IODE ocean data portal. The Roshydromet (AARI, Hydrometcenter Moscow , RIHMI-WDC) is willing to discuss  requests and provision of support to YOPP field activities including the designated YOPP Special Observing Periods,  based on existing services and resources enhanced  for YOPP.  In order to examine which services will be potentially requested – during what time intervals, regions and for what parameters, please provide your request along with detailed information on the planned activities. Please address your request to Alexander Klepikov –  klep(at)aari.ru with a copy to Vasily Smolyanitsky – vms(at)aari.aq.


Relevant websites:

Operational services: http://www.aari.ru/main.php?lg=1&id=54, http://ice.aari.aq

Weather: http://wmc.meteoinfo.ru/

Finnish Meteorological Institute

The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has a broad experience in providing weather, marine, sea ice, and snow services to aid specific science-based operations in and around Finland. FMI is willing to discuss providing specific services, if needed for targeted YOPP activities in the field, especially during the Special Observing Periods. The support could be based on the dissemination of existing open data, services and capabilities and/or potentially enhanced data, products and services with the understanding that this would be contingent on resources available at the time. In order to examine which data, product and service requirements can be addressed and how to best respond to them, please add to your request as much detail as possible to the precise information that would be helpful to your monitoring activity. Please address your request to Timo Vihma: timo.vihma(at)fmi.fi.

Icelandic Meteorological Office

The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) has a broad experience in providing weather, marine, aviation, sea ice and snow services to aid specific science based operations in Icelandic and over the surround seas. For instance, IMO supported NASA flight campaigns over Greenland in 2012 and 2015 with specialised forecasts as well as the Greenland flow distortion experiment (GFDex) in 2007 with a variety of forecast products.

IMO will support the atmospheric-oceanic field campaign of the Iceland and Greenland seas project (IGP) which will take place in February-March 2018. IMO is willing to discuss providing specific services, if needed for targeted YOPP activities in the field, especially during the Special Observing Periods. The support could be based on the dissemination of existing open data, services and capabilities and/or potentially enhanced data, products and services with the understanding that this would be contingent on resources available at the time. In order to examine which data, product and service requirements can be addressed and how to best respond to them, please add to your request as much detail as possible to the precise information that would be helpful to your monitoring activity. 

Please address your request to Ingvar Kristinsson: ingvar(at)vedur.is.

Met Office, UK

The Met Office is a world-leading operational forecasting centre and has a long history of providing forecasts and services throughout the globe. The Met Office would be willing to provide access to operational forecasts for the Arctic in support of campaigns during the Year Of Polar Prediction with the understanding that this would be contingent on resources available at the time. This support would likely be based on access to forecasts from the current 10km global NWP model but possibly also our trial coupled global NWP system and a high resolution (2.2km) limited area model being run in support of our MACSSIMIZE aircraft campaign. In order to gain access to the data please contact Ed Blockley (ed.blockley(at)metoffice.gov.uk) and provide details about your campaign and/or requirements.

National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (China)

The National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (NMEFC) affiliated with the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), China, is a national institute focusing on marine environmental research, services and operational forecasts. Since 1984, NMEFC is responsible for the weather and sea ice service for the CHInese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) program. Additionally, NMEFC provides Arctic marine and meteorological service for stakeholders, e.g. the China COSCO Corporation Shipping Company who already carried out commercial transits within Arctic waters during 14 cruises. NMEFC is willing to discuss providing specific services if needed for targeted YOPP activities in the field, especially during the YOPP Special Observing Periods. The support could be based on the dissemination of existing services and capabilities and/or potentially enhanced services with the understanding that this would be contingent on resources available at the time. In order to examine which service requirements can be addressed and how to best respond to them, please add to your request as much detail as possible to the precise information that would be helpful to your monitoring activity. Please address your request to Qizhen Sun qizhen.sun(at)outlook.com.

Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway)

The Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway) has a wide range of experience supplying weather, marine and ice information services to aid specific science based operations in and around Norway's land and marine environments. For instance, the forecasting office in Tromsø was active during the IPY-THORPEX campaign. MET Norway is willing to discuss providing specific services if needed for targeted YOPP activities in the field, especially during the Special Observing Periods. The support could be based on the dissemination of existing open data, services and capabilities and/or potentially enhanced data, products and services with the understanding that this would be contingent on resources available at the time. In order to examine which data, product and service requirements can be addressed and how to best respond to them, please add to your request as much detail as possible to the precise information that would be helpful to your monitoring activity. Please address your request to Jørn Kristiansen jornk(at)met.no.

Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute

The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) has a wide range of experience supplying weather, marine and ice information services to aid specific science based operations in and around Sweden's land and marine environments. SMHI is willing to discuss providing specific services if needed for targeted YOPP activities in the field, especially during the Special Observing Periods. The support could be based on the dissemination of existing services and capabilities and/or potentially enhanced services with the understanding that this would be contingent on resources available at the time. In order to examine which service requirements can be addressed and how to best respond to them, please add to your request as much detail as possible to the precise information that would be helpful to your monitoring activity. Please address your request to Ulf Christensen ulf.christensen(at)smhi.se.

USGS Sea Ice Email Service

Daily sea ice imagery and charting are required for logistics and navigational planning in the Alaskan Arctic waters, yet access to these data often requires high bandwidth data access and substantial GIS processing. USGS developed a software script that acquires, processes and delivers these data in a format that may be manipulated by openly available virtual globe software, be visualized by software commonly installed on all smart phones and computers, and may be accessed through moderate band-width data communications available in remote Alaskan communities and offshore research vessels. The script sends daily or weekly e-mails with attached maps images and virtual globe data files of sea ice products, including the National Ice Center Marginal Ice Zone chart, and images of the 6.25 Km resolution passive microwave reflectance optimized to visualize sea ice. In the emailing the script provides links to the NASA MODIS imagery corrected to enhance visualization of sea ice; National Weather Service sea ice and surface forecast products, the NOAA NECP forecasted 24 h sea ice drift map, and the latest NOAA images from the POES AVHRR satellite.

To subscribe to this script, follow one of the links below:

REQUEST MAPS -- sent each Monday (Each Monday this will send you the (~165 Kb ) map images, which may be viewed on any smart phone or computer) 

REQUEST MAPS -- sent each day (Daily this will send you the (~165 Kb ) map images, which may be viewed on any smart phone or computer) 

REQUEST MAPS AND DATA -- sent each day (Daily this will send you the maps and an extra ~250Kb of data files that may only be viewed in virtual globe software)

Although this script has been for the Alaskan and Russian far eastern Arctic waters, it may be adapted for any Arctic or Antarctic. For any questions, you may contact Anthony Fischbach afischbach(at)usgs.gov or the International Coordination Office at office(at)polarprediction.net.

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is making the pre-operational Global Ocean Forecasting System (GOFS 3.1) sea ice output available to the YOPP community. GOFS 3.1 is a sea ice-ocean prediction system consisting of the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model two-way coupled to the Community Ice CodE (CICE) and is forced with the NAVy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM). GOFS 3.1 has ~3.5 km resolution at the North Pole and employs the Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation (NCODA) for available in situ ocean observations and satellite data, including sea ice concentration from SSMIS and AMSR2. The system is run daily and produces 7-day forecasts.

NRL is also running 45-day forecasts with the Navy Earth System Prediction Capability (ESPC) which is a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice model (NAVGEM/HYCOM/CICE). Operational NAVGEM 1.4 and pre-operational GOFS 3.1 provide the initial conditions. Each week, a time-lagged 4 member ensemble starting on Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue is run out 45 days. These ensemble forecasts are part of NOAA’s Subseasonal eXperiment (SubX). See the link below for access to global SubX products.

Please contact Joe Metzger at joe.metzger(at)nrlssc.navy.mil if you have questions.

Relevant websites:

GOFS 3.1 forecasts for the Arctic and Antarctic: https://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/GLBhycomcice1-12/POLAR.html


SubX global ensemble products out to 45 days: http://cola.gmu.edu/kpegion/subx/index.html

U.S. NOAA National Weather Service Alaska Region

The NOAA National Weather Service Alaska Region (NWS AR) has a wide range of experience supplying weather, aviation, marine, river, and sea ice information services to aid specific science-based operations for all of Alaska as well as marine waters of the U.S. exclusive economic zone stretching from the Bering Sea to the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea. The NWS AR is willing to discuss the provision of specific services, if needed, for targeted YOPP activities in the field, especially during the Special Observing Periods. The support could be based on the dissemination of existing services and capabilities and/or potentially enhanced services, i.e., site-specific forecast requests, aviation briefings, etc., with the understanding that this would be contingent on resources available at the time. In order to examine which service requirements can be addressed and how to best respond to them, please notify Renee.L.Tatusko(at)noaa.gov at least a month in advance of the requested support.

Relevant websites:

Fairbanks Weather Forecast Office:  http://www.weather.gov/afg/

Alaska Aviation Weather Unit:  http://www.weather.gov/aawu/

Alaska Sea Ice Program: https://www.weather.gov/afc/ice_static

U.S. National Ice Center Service Request: http://www.natice.noaa.gov/Services_Request.htm and http://www.natice.noaa.gov/products/