Proceedings magazine is a communication tool for the Coast Guard's Marine Safety & Security Council. Each quarterly magazine focuses on a specific theme of interest to the marine industry.
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Partnerships and Governance The North American Ice Service A decade of collaboration. byMR. MICHAELHICKS Chief Scientist U.S. Coast Guard International Ice Patrol FromtheearliestdaysoftheInternationalIcePatrol, formed after the Titanic tragedyin1912,acloseworkingrelationshipdevelopedbetweenU.S.andCanadianiceexpertsthatcontinuestoday.Theconcept oftheNorthAmericanIceService(NAIS)evolved fromthisrelationshipamongtheCanadianIceService(CIS),theU.S.NationalIceCenter(NIC),andthe InternationalIcePatrol(IIP),undertheU.S./Canada JointIceWorkingGroup. TheNAISwasformalizedin2003throughanannex toamemorandumofunderstandingbetweentheU.S. NationalOceanicandAtmosphericAdministration andtheMeteorologicalServiceofEnvironmentCanada,withtheexpectationthattheintegrationofthe iceservicesofbothcountriescouldfurthereffciencies in the provision of ice information. Assuch,themissionoftheNorthAmericanIceService is to leverage the strengths of the Canadian Ice Service,theU.S.NationalIceCenter,andtheInternational Ice Patrol; monitor and providetimelyandaccurateice analysis;andmeettheneeds of the maritime interests of the United States and Canadian governments. The respective directors from each participating service serve as co-directors for the NAISorganization.Itisfurther organized into three commit68 Proceedings Summer 2013 tees:operations,science,andinformationtechnology. NAISasawholemeetsannuallytostrategizeandprioritizecollaborativeendeavors,whileitscommittees meetmorefrequentlytofocusindividualstrengths fromeachservicetoaddressandresolvekeyissues. TheNAISsupports: • • • • • safeandeffcientmaritimeoperations, weatherandenvironmentalmodeling, nationalandenvironmentalsecurity, researchandclimateunderstanding, internationaltreatyobligations. In2005,NAIScompletedauserneedsvalidationstudy thatconfrmedandredefnedusergroups,geographic scope,andhigh-levelinformation/productrequirements.Anotherstudybeneft:asearchable,easy-tomaintainrelationaldatabaseofNAISrequirements andproducts. Deliverables Overthepastdecade,NAISpartnershavecollaboratedtoproducetwoicecharts niceanalysisfor —a theGreatLakesandan"iceberglimit"chartforthe Atlantic esultingfromthecombinedeffortsofeach —r serviceanddistributedasNAISiceproducts.Tomore evenlydividetheworkfow,theNationalIceCenter andtheCanadianIceServiceeachproducetheGreat Lakescharttwiceaweek.Usingthesamecharttemplateatbothlocationsprovidesacommonproduct look, regardless of the creation site. continued on page 70 www.uscg.mil/proceedings