ICOADS Marine Data Rescue: Status and Future CDMP Priorities

Completion of another full International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere
Data Set (ICOADS) update following Release 2.5 (R2.5; spanning ~1662-2007;
Woodruff et al. 2009) would be highly desirable by October 2010 to support the
following reanalysis efforts: (a) NOAA-CIRES Surface Input Reanalysis for
Climate Applications (SIRCA; 1840s-present), (b) ECMWF’s ERA-CLIM (~1935-present), and (c) NCEP/CPC’s for the “radiosonde era” (~1950-present).
Additionally, efforts to improve sea surface temperature (SST) analyses— including by the UK Met Office of a HadISST2 product (~1850-present) and by
NCDC of a revised ERSST product—would greatly benefit from improvements in the ICOADS data and metadata within approximately that same timeframe.
However, while very helpful continuing international contributions are anticipated (e.g. UK), making these desired improvements within the proposed update schedule appears highly dependent on adequate resources from CDMP (subject to year-to-year uncertainty owing to the special funding basis), as well as on adequate NOAA funding for the ICOADS project (also uncertain).