Overview

Overview

The participants of the IABP work together to maintain a network of drifting buoys in the Arctic Ocean to provide meteorological and oceanographic data for real-time operational requirements and research purposes including support to the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the World Weather Watch (WWW) Programme.

Data from the IABP have many uses. For example:
1. Research in Arctic climate and climate change,
2. Forecasting weather and ice conditions,
3. Validation of satellites,
4. Forcing, validation and assimilation into numerical climate models, and
5. Tracking the source and fate of samples taken from the ice.
Over 500 publications have benefited from observations from the IABP!

The U.S. contributions to the IABP are coordinated through the U.S. Interagency Buoy Program (USIABP), which is managed by the U.S. National/Naval Ice Center, and the Polar Science Center, and represent several U.S. agencies, including the International Arctic Research Center, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Naval Oceanographic Office, the Office of Naval Research, and the U.S. Coast Guard.

PSC CONTACTS
Ignatius Rigor, Coordinator of the IABP
Mark Ortmeyer, Data Manager of the IABP

NIC CONTACTS
LTJG James Brinkley, Coordinator of the USIABP