Fundamental Observations Maintained by the U.S. Interagency Buoy Programme (USIABP) and International Arctic Buoy Program (IABP)
Abstract
Our ability to predict weather and sea ice conditions requires in situ observations of surface meteorology and ice motion. These observations are assimilated into Numerical Weather Prediction models that are used to forecast weather, and into the many long-term atmospheric reanalyses (e.g., NCEP/NCAR Reanalyses) that are used for innumerable climate studies. Over the Arctic Ocean, this fundamental observing network is maintained by the International Arctic Buoy Programme (IABP, http://IABP.apl.uw.edu).
The IABP is evolving to better support the operational and research requirements of the community. For example, some of the Participants of the IABP have been deploying buoys which not only measure SLP and SAT, but also ocean currents, temperatures, salinity and waves. Other buoys have been enhanced to measure the ice mass balance (IMB) using thermistor strings and sounders aimed at the sea ice. These ocean and IMB buoys are usually deployed together in order to provide a myriad of concurrent observations at a few points across the Arctic Ocean. These data are also used as ground truth for satellites, and support ice forecasts by the U.S. National Ice Center, support to the World Climate Research Programme, the World Weather Watch Programme, and the Arctic Observing Network.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.A23G2928W
- Keywords:
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- 0399 General or miscellaneous;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0434 Data sets;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0799 General or miscellaneous;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 4299 General or miscellaneous;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL