ICE OBSERVATION IN THE GREENLAND SECTOR, 194a 



By Edward H. Smith 



In reviewing tlie general ice conditions in the northwestern North 

 Atlantic during the drift season of 1940 one point which stands out 

 strongly is the more general, comprehensive picture that has been 

 obtained this year than formerly. This raises a feature of Ice Patrol 

 which has for some time been pointed out. It can be illustrated some- 

 what as follows. No river engineer who is charged with the responsi- 

 bility of maintaining the system of levees, flood control, and the safety 

 of navigation m the vicinity of New Orleans, is satisfied to confine 

 his field of study and information to the lower part of the Mississippi 

 system only. In order to administer efficiently and wisely to his 

 problems, moreover, he must supplement local information with data 

 from upstream and often with statistics which extend to the dramage 

 basin in its enthety. Similarly the service of the Ice Patrol, viz, to 

 provide the greatest practical amount of safety for life and property 

 passing the ice regions of the North Atlantic, cannot be administered 

 so efficiently, mtelligently, and thoroughly if the work is confined 

 solely to reporting icebergs and to measuring currents at the southern 

 terminus of the Labrador Current. Efficient administration of the 

 practical duties of the Ice Patrol, therefore, requhes a comprehensive 

 knowledge of the life cycle of Arctic ice over its enthe pathway, from 

 its formation to its final dismtegration, and this in turn requires a sec- 

 ondary program of study and mvestigation of the ice m time and place 

 but indirectly involves observations of ocean currents and research 

 in meteorology and oceanography as well. 



Early recognition of desirable scientific mvestigations to bring 

 greater safety to the ice menace was expressed by the convention 

 which established the Ice Patrol service. This work was first devoted 

 to meteorological and biological observations taken by the Coast 

 Guard cutters assigned to Ice Patrol, with the hope that information 

 on the drift of the plankton might reveal the drift of the bergs. This 

 was soon abandoned for the present tool of large-area current maps 

 obtained through methods of dynamic oceanography. 



The first attempt to explore beyond the southern terminus of the 

 Arctic current and to learn something more regarding the behavior of 

 the ice upstream, was begun in 1914 when the cutter Seneca sailed 

 "to observe the origin of the ice which annually appears on the Banks 

 of Newfoundland, and to investigate the agencies by which it is trans- 



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