Operational Ice Services Meet, Issue Press Release

The International Ice Charting Working Group's 12th meeting was hosted by the British Antarctic survey October 17-21 in Cambridge, England. The NOAA@NSIDC team at NSIDC works with this group to advance the use of operational ice charts by researchers and to assist in archiving these valuable records. Florence Fetterer gave a talk on work led by John Walsh of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to extend the observational record in sea ice extent products back to 1850. Having issued a statement titled National Ice Services Caution that "Open" Does Not Mean Ice-Free, the IICWG warned against misinterpreting "open" or even "ice free" when referring to the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route.