ABSTRACT 



The authority for and the duties of the International Ice Patrol are 

 described. The forces assigned to the International Ice Patrol during 

 the 1953 ice season are listed. 



A description of the aerial ice reconnaissance carried out by the 

 International Ice Patrol during the 1953 ice season is presented. 



The use of radio communications to gather reports of ice and weather 

 conditions from ships and other sources and to disseminate ice infor- 

 mation to shipping is described. The importance of the ice and 

 weather reports from ships is emphasized. 



Portrayal is made of ice conditions during 1953 in the vicinity of 

 Newfoundland and the influence thereon of meteorological factors. 

 The 1953 ice season in the North Atlantic was characterized for the 

 thu-d successive year by the small number of bergs which drifted 

 south of 48° N. Although the southern and eastern limits reached 

 by the pack ice were about normal to the third week in March, a 

 marked recession of those limits then followed. The steamer routes 

 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Strait of Belle Isle were opened 

 unusually early. The lightness of the ice season may be attributed 

 in part to the influence of certain meteorological conditions, namely, 

 strong easterly winds which drove the pack ice and the bergs therem 

 toward the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador and into the bays 

 and the absence of westerly winds of sufficient strength to drive the 

 ice back into the Labrador Current before the ice melted. 



Tables of ice reports made to the International Ice Patrol, ice 

 reconnaissance flight statistics, number of bergs annually drifting south 

 of 48° N., since 1913, opening dates for the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 

 the Strait of Belle Isle (1946-53), and charts of sea surface isotherms 

 and reported positions of ice are included. 



In the section on oceanography the surface circulation in the Grand 

 Banks region during the ice patrol season of 1953 has been discussed 

 on the basis of four dynamic topographic surveys which indicated 

 the presence of currents adequate to transport bergs to areas of 

 potential hazard to the steamer lanes if bergs had entered the surveyed 

 area from the north. 



The circulation in the upper 1,000 meters in the Grand Banks 

 region has been considered in greater detail by presentation of the 

 volume and heat transports, mean temperature and minimum temper- 

 ature observed in 1953 during 19 occupations of 10 selected sections 



