GEOSAT altimeter sea-ice mapping

The efforts to use GEOSAT data to refine an ice index that is applicable to widely varying ice conditions are detailed. The sea-ice mapping requirements, the present US Navy ice-index operational utilization, and ongoing and future work that promises to provide additional sea-ice measurement capabilities are discussed. Possibilities include discrimination among water, land, ice, combination water/ice, and water/land, as well as distinguishing various ice concentrations and possibly ice types. Coincident airborne passive microwave and synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) data have been collected to test several methods which appear to be promising.<
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