Summary of Operations, 1992 



The 1992 IIP year (October 1, 1991 - 

 September 30, 1992) marked the 78th anni- 

 versary of the International Ice Patrol, which 

 was established Febnjary 7, 1 91 4. HP's oper- 

 ating area is delineated by 40°N - 52°N, 

 39°W-57°W (Figure 1). 



llP'sfirst aerial Iceberg Reconnaissance 

 Detachment (ICERECDET) of the year de- 

 parted on February 1 0, and the 1 992 IIP sea- 

 son was opened on March 07. From this date 

 until September 26, 1992, an ICERECDET 

 operated from Newfoundland one week out of 

 every two. The season officially closed on 

 September 26, 1992. Coast Guard HC-130H 

 aircraft equipped with the AN/APS-135 Side- 

 Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR) flew 50 ice 

 reconnaissance sorties, logging over 297 

 flight hours, and Coast Guard HU-25B aircraft 

 equipped with the AN/APS-1 31 SLAR flew 1 5 

 reconnaissance sorties, logging over41 flight 

 hours. 



Table 1 



Sources of Sightings Entered 



into HP's Drift Model 



Watchstanders at MP's Operations 

 Center in Groton, Connecticut analyzed 

 the iceberg sighting information from the 

 ICERECDETs, along with sighting information 

 from ships and Atmospheric Environment 

 Service (AES) of Canada sea ice/iceberg re- 

 connaissance flights and othersources. Table 

 1 shows that air reconnaisance and ships 

 were the major sources of iceberg sighting 

 reports this season. Appendix A lists all ship 

 initiated iceberg sighting reports, including re- 

 ports of radar targets, regardless of the sight- 

 ing location. In Appendix A,several targets 

 may have been included in a single report. 



As in 1 991 , AES flew few iceberg re- 

 connaissance flights during 1 992 because of a 

 lack of funding. AES did acquire and relay to 

 IIP a minimal amount of iceberg information 

 obtained during sea ice reconnaissance flights. 

 Atlantic Airways, the private company which 

 provides aerial reconnaissance for the Cana- 

 dian Department of Fisheries and Oceans 

 (DFO) and the oil companies operating on the 

 Grand Banks, continued to forward iceberg 

 data acquired during flights to IIP. The largest 

 concentration of iceberg reports for the 1992 

 Ice Season were received from Atlantic Air- 

 ways. 



During 1 992, the IIP Operations Center 

 received a total of 31 70 target sightings within 

 its operations area (40°N - 52°N, 39°W - 

 57°W) and away from the Newfoundland coast 

 which were entered into HP's drift model, com- 

 pared to 4370 target sightings during 1991. 

 Sighting sources and percent of total reports 

 are in Table 1 . The 31 70 targets entered into 

 MP's drift model do not represent all of the total 

 targets reported to IIP. Sightings of targets 

 outside HP's operations area, grounded 

 targets or targets in areas of little or poorly 



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