drifting buoys which IIP 

 evaluated during the 1990 

 and 1991 IIP oceanographic 

 cruises. All buoys were 

 equipped with temperature 

 sensors. Drift data from the 

 buoys are discussed in the IIP 

 1991 Drifting Buoy Atlas, avail- 

 able upon reqest. 



During the 1991 sea- 

 son, llPsuccessfully deployed 

 57 Air-deployable expendable 

 Bath yThermog rap hs 

 (AXBTs). The AXBT mea- 

 sures temperature with depth 

 and transmits the data back to 

 the aircraft. Temperature data 

 from the AXBTs were sent to 

 the Canadian Meteorological 

 and Oceanographic Center 

 (METOC) in Halifax, Nova 

 Scotia, Canada, the U.S. Na- 

 val Eastern Oceanography 

 Center(NEOC) in Norfolk, Vir- 

 ginia, and FNOC for use as 

 inputs into ocean temperature 

 models. IIP directly benefits 

 from its AXBT deployments 

 by having improved ocean 

 temperature data provided to 

 its iceberg deterioration model. 

 To further enhance the quality 

 of environmental data used in 

 its iceberg models, IIP also 

 provided weekly drifting buoy 

 sea surface temperature 

 (SST) and drift histories and 

 SLAR ocean feature analyses 

 to METOC and NEOC for use 

 in water mass and SST analy- 

 ses. Canada's Maritime Com- 

 mand / Meterological and 



Oceanographic Centre pro- 

 vided 252 AXBT probes for I IP 

 use, significantly increasing 

 the temperature data IIP could 

 obtain. 



IIP conducted an 

 oceanographic cruise aboard 

 the USCGC BITTERSWEET 

 (WLB 389) between April 29 

 and May 25,1 991 offtheGrand 

 Banks of Newfoundland. The 

 objectives of the cruise were: 



1 ) to conduct an operational 

 evaluation of Worid Ocean 

 CirculationExperiment 

 (WOCE) drifters for use as 

 current-measuring devices, 



2) to determine the drift errors 

 of the full-sized TOD's IIP 

 uses, and 3) to provide sur- 

 face truth for an evaluation of 

 the APS-137 Forward Look- 

 ing Airborne Radar (FLAR) 

 aboard HC-130 aircraft as an 

 iceberg sensor. Hydrographic 

 stations were conducted dur- 

 ing the cnjise. The results will 

 be published in a U. S. Coast 

 Guard IIP Technical Report. 



On April 18, 1991, IIP 



paused to remember the 79^*^ 

 anniversary of the sinking of 



the RMS TITANIC. During an 



ice reconnaissance patrol, two 



memorial wreaths were placed 



near the site of the sinking to 



commemorate the neariy 1 500 



lives lost. 



Page 7 



