Title: Ice Analyses from the National Ice Center Collected for SBI by: Steve Roberts UCAR/JOSS Data Contact: Greg Stossmeister UCAR/JOSS P.O. Box 3000 Boulder, CO 80307 Phone:(303)497-8692 Fax:(303)497-8158 e-mail:gstoss@ucar.edu DATASET OVERVIEW: These data products are produced by the National Ice Center and were retrieved from their web pages (http://www.natice.noaa.gov ) during the SBI 2002 Cruise Season. Weekly ice analyses for both the Chukchi and the Beaufort Seas were collected as well as daily ice concentrations imagery for the entire arctic. During the first week of September 1996, the National Ice Center (NIC) began routinely producing regional-scale analyses for all sea ice covered seas located (clockwise) between the longitudes of 95E and 95W in the northern hemisphere. This global area, known as the "Arctic" to the NIC, is comprised of different Arctic regions. Analyses of current ice conditions are produced weekly for regions in which sea ice is present. Regions containing no analysis information should be considered ice-free. Exceptions to this rule may occur when ice is limited to but does not extend beyond an overlap between two regions. All NIC regional sea ice analyses are derived from the near real-time integration of remotely sensed and in-situ oceanographic/meteorological observations. These analyses are produced following standard analysis procedures which optimize the use of data that vary widely in availability, scale, and resolution. These operational data sources can be grouped into the following categories: satellite derived data, aerial ice reconnaissance, ship/shore station observations, drifting buoy reports, meteorological guidance products, ice prediction model output, climatology and sea ice information obtained from international partners such as foreign ice services. These products are disseminated through a variety of communications paths in both digital and analog formats. GIF charts are labeled using the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) international sea ice symbology known colloquially as the "Egg Code" (see http://www.natice.noaa.gov/Egg.htm ). DATA FORMAT: Data are in .jpg or .gif image formats.