ABOUT THE NEW VERSION OF THE “ICE” SOFTWARE PACKAGE

Abstract

The paper describes the new version (1.2) of the “Ice” software designed for calculating the sea ice area of different cohesion according to pentad (once in five days) archival maps of the ice cover of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, based on remote Earth-sensing data in the universal polar stereographic projection (UPS) and published in free access by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) after each ice season since 1971. In the process of modifying the basic version of the software an additional possibility of processing operational ice map-schemes, which are being published operatively on the JMA website between December and May twice a week (on Tuesday and Friday) in a transversely cylindrical Mercator projection, has been added. Functions of creating zoning masks for calculating ice massif area according to operational map-schemes in regions with arbitrary borders for samples of any length and periodicity have been added. The possibility of calculating the volume of ice is realized by taking into consideration the average thickness of the ice massif in the selected area, which is calculated by the ice expert according to satellite imagery in the visible and infrared ranges. The description of formats of files with initial and target data containing information about zoning, thickness of ice, area of ice cover of various cohesion has been given. A technique for creating masks for regions with a fixed ice thickness on operational maps is described. Formulas and basic parameters for calculating the volume of ice in selected areas with arbitrary borders in the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan are given.

Keywords

• ice maps
• area
• cohesion
• ice cover
• regionalization
• ice value
• Sea of Okhotsk
• Sea of Japan