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GLERL 2005 Milestone Reports
< GLERL 2005 Milestone main page
GOAL: Ecosystem
Scientist: Ray Assel (GLERL)
NOAA Performance Objective: Increase number of regional coastal and marine ecosystems delineated with approved indicators of ecological health and socio-economic benefits that are monitored and understood
NOAA Corporate Measure: TBD
OAR Performance Measure: Increase number, accuracy, and regional specificity of U.S. climate, water, and coastal resource products
NOAA Program: Ecosystem Research
Milestone: Completion of Historical NWS Ice Thickness Reports.
Purpose: Make historical NWS ice reports for the coastal region of the Great Lakes accessible in a computer compatible format.
Efforts and Results (to date): Historical National Weather Service Great Lakes ice reports were digitized to provide a dataset of ice thicknesses and ancillary ice information for the coastal zone of the Great Lakes for the winter seasons from 1899 to 1970. This work was accomplished under the NOAA Climate Database Modernization Program. These data are now available in a computer compatible format. The data abstracted and digitized from the historical paper copy NWS ice reports consisted of site name, lake or river on which site is located, year, month, and day of report, ice thickness, ice condition, and a section of supplementary descriptive ice cover information. An estimate of the latitude and longitude location of each site and a site number were added later. The original paper copy reports were scanned and a graphic image file was created for each of the original report pages. Each digitized ice site record is cross-referenced with its image file to facilitate examination of the original data. The digital data is summarized as tabular listings, image files of the original NWS ice reports, and image files of each sits location. A report was published (Assel, 2004) and it and the dataset are available on the Internet.
Assel, R.A. Computerized National Weather Service Great Lakes ice reports for winter seasons 1899-1970. NOAA Technical Memorandum GLERL-130. NOAA, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Ann Arbor, MI, 31 pp. (2004). ftp://ftp.glerl.noaa.gov/publications/tech_reports/glerl-130/tm-130.pdf
Customer(s): Historical Great Lakes coastal zone ice cover information has research, marine engineering and design, and operational applications. Potential operational customers include the NOAA National Ice Center, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Cause Factors (if milestone not met): NA
Last updated: 2005-01-19 mbl