International Ice Patrol starts operations, informing for icebergs

The Coast Guard International Ice Patrol announced that it’s starting operations for the 2019 ice season as from February 5, 2019 and will resume production of the North American Ice Service (NAIS) daily iceberg warning products from its operations center in New London, Connecticut.

Mainly, NAIS provides iceberg warning from February to August, in the timeframe when icebergs are a great threat to transatlantic shipping.

In the meantime, the Canadian Ice Service generates the iceberg warning products for the remainder of the year.

The Iceberg Limit is published in a daily bulletin (NAIS-10) and graphical chart (NAIS-65) and distributed through various methods including radio broadcasts and the internet.

Whereas, the Canadian Ice Service will continue their traditional distribution mechanisms.

The NAIS iceberg bulletin and chart advise mariners of the iceberg extent in the vicinity of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Canada, along the Labrador Coast, and the southern end of Greenland, providing both an Iceberg Limit and an iceberg density distribution within the limit.

Reports of ice in this area come from different sources, such as passing ships, satellite imagery, and reconnaissance flights.

An additional feature for 2019 will be that around Greenland there will be updated bi-weekly from satellite imagery analyzed by the Danish Meteorological Institute, since previously it was updated monthly based upon 30-year climatological averages.

Concluding, satellites will continue providing images around Newfoundland, in order to detect and identify icebergs.

Source:safety4sea.com