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This IBCAO RP-2 2004 Poster is a polar stereographic view of the Arctic Ocean displaying bathymetric contours north of 64 degrees north at a scale of 1:6,000,000. The poster size is 42 x 52 inches.

Initiated in 1997, this undertaking has so far engaged the volunteer efforts of investigators who are affiliated with eleven institutions in eight countries: Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the USA. The activity has also been endorsed and/or supported financially by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), the US Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the US National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC; now the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

The information used in the construction of this map consist of: historic and recent under-ice soundings collected by submarines of the United States and the United Kingdom; historic and recent observations collected by icebreakers and drifting ice stations; and information portrayed in published navigation and compilation charts. The locations of these data sets are shown in separate source distribution maps, while data contributors and relevant references are listed in this legend under "Data Contributions".

Land relief was derived from the USGS GTOPO30 topographic model, with the exception of Greenland, where the model developed by the Danish National Survey and Cadastre (KMS) was used, and Alaska, where release 1.1 of the GLOBE topographic model was used. Coastline definition was provided by the World Vector Shoreline (WVS) in all areas except Greenland and northern Ellesmere Island, where an updated coastline was available from KMS.

Original soundings were corrected for sound velocity using Carter's Tables, or CTD (Conductivity, Temperature and Depth) profiles where available. Subsequently, all data (digitized isobaths; land and marine relief grids; point, profile and swath observations; and vector shorelines) were imported into Intergraph's Geomedia Professional, with projection parameters set to polar stereographic on the WGS 84 ellipsoid, and with true scale at 75° N. Outliers, cross-track errors, and the fit between isobaths and original observation data were checked. Suspicious soundings were removed and, where contours showed major discrepancies with soundings, the contours were adjusted manually to agree with trackline data.