Radarsat-1 for sea ice monitoring in Canada-an operational success story

Monitoring of sea ice in Canada's Arctic was one of the prime motivations for the development of an all-weather, active remote sensing satellite by the Canadian government. The Canadian Ice Service (CIS) has been an active participant in the Radarsat-1 program since its inception, and throughout the research, development, and operational phases. The CIS now critically relies on Radarsat-1 to provide operational ice reconnaissance over a seasonal ice cover of approximately 2 million km/sup 2/.