Summary of 

 Operations, 1987 



From March 12 to July 

 31, 1987, the International 

 Ice Patrol (IIP), a unit of the 

 U.S. Coast Guard, conducted the 

 International Ice Patrol Serv- 

 ice, which has been provided 

 annually since the sinking of 

 the RMS TITANIC on April 15, 

 1912. During past years, 

 Coast Guard ships and/or 

 aircraft have been patrolling 

 the shipping lanes off New- 

 foundland within the area 

 delineated by 40°N - 52'='N, 

 39°W - 57°W, detecting 

 icebergs, and warning mari- 

 ners of these hazards. During 



1987, Coast Guard HC-130 

 aircraft flew 53 ice reconnais- 

 sance sorties, logging over 368 

 flight hours. The AN/APS-135 

 Side-Looking Airborne Radar 

 (SLAR), which was introduced 

 into Ice Patrol duty during the 

 1983 season, again proved to 

 be an excellent all-weather 

 tool for the detection of both 

 icebergs and sea ice. 



Aircraft deployments 

 were made on January 25 to 

 February 4 and February 27 to 

 March 6 to determine the pre- 

 season iceberg distribution. 



For the first time, these pre 

 season surveys were made 

 jointly with the Ice Branch of 

 the Atmospheric Environment 

 Service (AES) of Canada. This 

 was the first season since 

 1978 that IIP has conducted a 

 pre-season census of icebergs 

 north of 52°N and the first 

 pre-season census ever done 

 using SLAR. Figures 1 and 2 

 show the iceberg distribution 

 north of 52°N from these two 

 surveys. This cooperative 

 census with SLAR allowed a 

 wider look at the pre-season 

 iceberg distribution than in 



Figure 1. Area of 

 iceberg census and 

 iceberg count Janu- 

 ary 25 to February 4, 

 1987. Numbers 

 shown are number of 

 icebergs per 1° lati- 

 tude by 1" longitude 

 square. 



