Frequently asked questions

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Within the IcySea App click on the "i" button (in the upper left corner), scroll down to the bottom of the window and select "Check for update". If there is a new update available close the "i" window and click on the "Update" button on the left side of your screen. Be aware that the IcySea download will use up about 80 Megabyte, so make sure you have a stable internet connection capable of facilitating such a data volume.

Within the IcySea App click on "Settings" (The wheel icon in the upper left corner) and then click on "Update subscriptions". Your new subscription period should be displayed now.

Within the IcySea App click on "Settings" (The wheel icon in the upper left corner) and then click on "Update subscriptions". If your region of interest is still not available, please contact our support team.

Go to the 'Settings' menu and select whether you want to use your device's Location Services or an external GNSS sensor to display your user position. There are two ways to display your current position using an external sensor:

1. Use an external 'GNSS Dongle' (see picture), which is a plug in sensor for your computer and costs approx. 15 EUR (we usually use: 'G-MOUSE' from 'DIY Mall'). Connect the sensor via USB and click on the 'User Position' button in the top left corner in IcySea. You will be asked which COM Port sensor you want to use and after selecting the correct one the sensor will connect and IcySea will display your position. This method is applicable for all operating systems (Windows, Linux, macOS).

2. Connect IcySea to your ship's GNSS via a virtual serial port:

i) Install the freely-available software HW VSP3 (Windows only) on the IcySea computer (admin rights are required). The software creates a virtual serial port.

ii) Input the IP address of the server distributing the GNSS position on the ship into the HW VSP3 software and select the corresponding COM port (see image).

iii) Go to the IcySea 'Settings' menu (wheel symbol in the top left corner), navigate to the 'User Position' menu and select 'Connect to GNSS sensor via serial port'. Also select the correct baud rate, which is adjustable within the HW VSP3 settings.

iv) Close the IcySea 'Settings' menu and click on the 'User Position' button in the top left corner. IcySea will connect and move the screen to your current position.

If any of the above instructions are not working for you, please contact us via support@driftnoise.com.

Radar images are divided into a grid, where you have to actively download individual tiles. To do so, right-click (or long-press on tactile screen) on a tile and select "Get low-res radar image" or "Get high-res radar image". Radar images are available everywhere for all customers.

Interpretation guidelines are provided beside the layer, click on the information icon: . If these guidelines are not sufficient for your operations and you require more support, we are happy to help! Just contact our support staff to get personalised assistance.

All data products are gathered from external sources. As soon as the respective data set becomes publicly available it is processed and displayed in IcySea, which allows you to utilize near real-time information for your operations.

Sea-ice concentration

Activate the layer and a legend at the bottom left gives additional information including a timestamp. The sea-ice concentration layer is updated up to eight times a day, so you should refresh the layer regularly.

Surface temperature

Click on the layer name in the layer control panel at the top right hand corner of the app to activate the layer. You will now see surface temperature timestamp and colour map information in the bottom left hand corner of the page. Surface temperature information is updated daily at approximately 14:00 UTC.

Ice drift forecast

Activate the layer and a legend at the bottom left gives additional information including when the forecast was calculated. The ice drift forecasts are updated once per day.

Ice charts

Activate the ice charts layer and the corresponding legend in the bottom left corner will provide the date and timestamp. When clicking on the ice chart polygons of the DMI ice charts the egg code box will also display the age information. Data updates depend on where the data is coming from. DMI updates usually come in between every one to three days, while US ice charts are produced on a weekly basis.

Radar and optical images

On the layer button of radar/optical images click on the "clock" symbol. All images will be colour-coded according to age, legend appears at the bottom left. If you zoom in the tiles of interest, their exact age of data tiles will show. See the example below:

IcySea is always global, covering both polar regions. By default IcySea shows the Arctic; to show the Antarctic first click on the settings wheel in the upper left corner of the window to open the "Settings" dialog box. Then click on "Show antarctic" option from within the "Polar regions" section and then close the dialog box by clicking on the X in the top right-hand corner. You should now see the Antarctic displayed in IcySea.

When using Google Chrome, you can click on the three vertical dots to the right of the Chrome browser bar to open the dropdown menu. There it says "Install IcySea...". Once you have done that you have IcySea available as an App icon on your computer. You won't have to open IcySea via Chrome anymore (that will happen automatically once you click on the App icon).