basins and subbasins boundaries

[Olivier Archer]

Hi All,

  A previous answer (https://groups.google.com/d/msg/ibtracs-qa/XgmXktGgi_s/Ayvr6wcgDgAJ) has mentioned that basins and subbasins definitions where taken from  http://www.marineregions.org , but I was not able to find such information.

  So my question is where can I found basins and subasins boundaries used by ibtracs ? 

Olivier

-- 

Olivier Archer  ( olivier...@ifremer.fr )
Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale - Satellites et Interaction Air-Mer

IFREMER LOPS-SIAM

  

[Ken Knapp - NOAA Federal]

Hi

Good question. It looks like this should be documented better, so I have added the information below to the technical documentation (which will go online soon).

Hope this helps:

-Ken

Appendix C - Basin and subbasin definitions

The following provides definitions of the boundaries used for the basins and subbasins used in IBTrACS. All longitude values are listed in degrees West of the Prime Meridian.

Basin boundaries

Basin boundaries are generally on longitude boundaries.

Southern Hemisphere basins (latitude < 0°)

SI = South Indian   10° < Longitude < 135°

SP = South Pacific 135° < Longitude < 290°

SA = South Atlantic -70° < Longitude <   10°

Northern Hemisphere basins (latitude > 0)

Two basins are defined solely by longitude:

NI = North Indian   30° < Longitude < 100°

WP = Western Pacific 100° < Longitude < 180°

The boundary of the North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific overlap to allow storms to make landfall and move inland without crossing basins. A storm is said to change basins only if it emerges over the opposite ocean. For instance, an Eastern Pacific cyclone only changes basin if it makes landfall from the Pacific, is tracked continuously and emerges over the North Atlantic where the basin identifier changes when it emerges over the Atlantic. Conversely, a North Atlantic cyclone is deemed in the NA basin until it emerges (i.e. crosses the coastline) of the Pacific Ocean.

EP = Eastern Pacific

Western Boundary of EP 180°

Eastern Boundary of EP  Coastline of the North America on the North Atlantic

NA = North Atlantic

Western Boundary of NA Coastline of North America on the Eastern Pacific

Eastern Boundary of NA 30°

Subbasin Boundaries

To facilitate analysis, some sub basins are provided for convenience. Some are defined by latitude and longitude boundaries while others were determined from their definitions at http://www.marineregions.org/ .  If a cyclone is not in a predefined subbasin, then the subbasin is listed as a default value: MM (missing).



Southern Hemisphere subbasins:

Subbasin Name Definition

WA (SI) Western Australia In SI and Longitude > 90°

EA (SP) Eastern Australia In SP and Longitude < 160°

Northern Hemisphere subbasins:

Subbasin Name Definition

AS (NI) Arabian Sea In NI and Longitude < 78°

BB (NI) Bay of Bengal In NI and Longitude > 78°

CP (EP) Central Pacific In EP and Longitude < -140°

CS (NA) Caribbean Sea In NA and inside the boundary from:
http://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=4287 

GM (NA) Gulf of Mexico In NA and inside the boundary from:

http://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=4288  

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "IBTrACS Q&A" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ibtracs-qa+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ibtracs-qa/CAOo%3DkQXe6%3DtaoaxpsaE3FJ6TQihDVSznTgaaD2M4GKEBJNDMKw%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Ken Knapp, Ph.D.

Meteorologist, Center for Weather and Climate

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information

151 Patton Ave

Asheville, NC 28801
828-271-4339 (voice) 828-271-4328 (fax)

"Leave this world a little better than you found it."
                             ---Baden-Powell's Last Message (1945)

Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed in this email are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of NOAA, Department of Commerce, or the US Government.

[Olivier Archer]

Hi Ken,

  This answer definitively help me. 

Thanks !  

Olivier

[AHABYONA JAMES]

Hey everyone, what variable do I use to restrict the data to a specific country that I want to study? 

[Jennifer Gahtan - NOAA Federal]

Hi-

IBTrACS does not have a variable that lists countries impacted by a storm. If you'd like to find storms that impact a specific country, it'd be best to start off with a subset of data from the basin(s) near the country and then use lat and lon variables to determine the location of tracks relative to the country, restricting storms to those that have latitudes and longitudes within certain bounds. 

Alternatively, I can direct you to the Historical Hurricane Tracker tool from our partners at NOAA'S Office of Coastal Management which uses IBTrACS data and will let you search for tracks by country.

If you'd like data reported by a specific country, you'd need to use the corresponding variables from that source (see Appendix A in the technical documentation for lists of sources and their variable names).

Best,

Jennifer

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ibtracs-qa/f54eba1a-dc48-4249-9993-1a35270273acn%40googlegroups.com.

--

Jennifer Gahtan, Ph.D. (she/her)

Physical Scientist
Climate Science and Services Division (CSSD)
NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
151 Patton Ave. Asheville, NC 28801

jennife...@noaa.gov

[AHABYONA JAMES]

Thanks a lot 

Warm regards,

James Ahabyona 

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. ~Albert Einstein.