Iceberg Reconnaissance and Oceanographic Operations 



Iceberg Reconnaissance 



The Ice Reconnaissance Detachment 

 (IRD) is a sub-unit under Commander, 

 International Ice Patrol (IIP) partnered with 

 Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, which 

 provided the aircraft platform for 

 reconnaissance in 2005. Ice Reconnaissance 

 Detachments deployed to observe and report 

 sea ice, icebergs, and oceanographic conditions 

 on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. 

 Oceanographic observations were used for 

 operational support and research purposes. 



Ice Patrol's preseason IRD departed on 

 27 January 2005 to determine the early-season 

 iceberg distribution. The iceberg distribution 

 noted during the preseason and subsequent 

 IRDs never warranted normal (once every two 

 weeks) deployments to Newfoundland. Though 

 IIP did not formally open the ice season — that 

 is, issue daily ice-limit products — in 2005, 

 IRDs deployed each month from January to 

 July to monitor iceberg conditions on the Grand 

 Banks. Iceberg-reconnaissance operations 

 concluded on 28 July 2005 with the return of 

 the postseason IRD. 



Ice Reconnaissance Detachments were 

 deployed to HP's base of operations in St. 

 John's, Newfoundland, for 51 days during 2005 

 (Table 1). Ice Patrol flew 31 sorties, 14 of 

 which were transit flights to and from St. 

 John's. The 17 remaining sorties were iceberg- 

 reconnaissance patrols to determine the extent 

 of iceberg danger. Portions of seven patrols 

 supported GMES, a project that coordinates 

 environment- and security-information 

 providers and users. For the third year in a row, 

 Ice Patrol participated as an end user of satellite 

 reconnaissance through the GMES project's 

 Polar View element, which is led by C-CORE, 

 a global engineering firm specializing in 

 remote sensing and geotechnical engineering. 

 In addition to the 31 sorties, there were four 

 logistics flights from Coast Guard Air Station 



Table 1. 2005 IRD summary (Flight hours include 

 patrol, logistics, and transit hours.) 



Elizabeth City to maintain and repair the 

 aircraft. Figure 7 shows HP's flight hours for 

 2005. 



Ice Patrol used 198.1 flight hours in 

 2005, a 36% decrease from 2004 (Figure 8). 

 Figure 9 compares flight hours with the 

 number of icebergs south of 48°N since 1996. 

 Iceberg population affects flight hours, but 

 Figure 9 demonstrates that IIP expends a fairly 

 consistent number of flight hours even though 

 the number of icebergs varies significantly 

 from year to year. Ice Patrol maintains this 

 consistency because even a small number of 

 icebergs passing south of 48°N can 

 dramatically extend the geographic distribution 



Logistics 

 Hours 



14% 



Transit 



Hours 



39% 



Patrol 

 Hours 



47% 



Figure 7. 2005 flight hours 



