A real-time geo-spatial information system: an integration of GIS technologies for ice forecasting

Each year, ships face many challenges travelling through the ice- and iceberg-covered waters of North America. The formulation and delivery of timely ice hazard warnings have become very important for the safety and security of ships, marine and Northern Canadian communities. The ice forecast information is used by ships and the marine community in decision-making and routeplanning. Transportation, oil exploration, environmental protection and research institutions rely on ice information for purposes of planning, decision support and research. The Canadian Ice Service (CIS) works closely with the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), the US Coast Guard (USCG) and the US National Ice Centre (NIC) to provide information on ice and icebergs to national and international clients. CIS relies on geo-spatial information technology and information management technologies to produce information about ice conditions and disseminate it to clients. The production, mapping and dissemination systems, based on client/server and parallel computing architecture, use the latest remote-sensing, GIS, web-mapping and data-warehouse technologies. The servers acquire over 6 GB/day of data in real-time from radar and camera systems on board aircraft, polar orbiting and geostationary satellites. These servers also receive ice observation charts from CCG icebreakers and ice reconnaissance aircraft, environmental and weather information from the Canadian Meteorological Centre, ice and GIS information from the US National Ice Centre, and spatial data from other national and international partners. The data received is automatically processed and stored in a central geospatial data repository. The ice forecasters and analysts use highly sophisticated graphic workstations to analyse and integrate information to generate products and digital maps. These products and maps are disseminated to partners and clients using satellite and terrestrial telecommunications systems. The clients and partners can also access this geo-spatial data repository using the Internet and geospatial data networks. In the near future, a user will be able to generate maps interactively and on demand. The CIS clients and ice service specialists on board the CCG ships will be able to browse the data repository using standard browsers or Java-based spatial browsers, select and download the required information or retrieve digital maps that have been ordered. The Integrated Spatial Information System (ISIS) is a decision-support system built upon technologies such as ESRI ArcGIS and ArcSDE, ERDAS Imagine, Oracle Relational Database and Blue Angel – Metastar. Microsoft Windows, Linux and HP-UX platforms are supported.