48°N but were later predicted to have 

 drifted south of 48°N. The 2003 season 

 lasted for 116 days and saw 927 individual 

 icebergs south of 48°N. The icebergs 

 south of 48°N measurement is generally 

 preferred by IIP because it places the 

 emphasis on icebergs that represent a 

 significant hazard to transatlantic shipping. 

 Season length is coupled with the number 

 of icebergs south of 48°N as Commander, 

 International Ice Patrol considers the 

 overall iceberg population and dates for the 

 opening and closing of the ice season. 



In the effort to classify ice season 

 severity, various authors have discussed 

 the appropriate measurements and criteria 

 (Alfultis, 1987; Trivers, 1994; and Marko, et 

 al., 1994). Comparing 2003 to the past five 

 years and measuring the statistics against 

 historical ice patrol data, 2003 was 

 moderate in terms of season length and 

 extreme in terms of the number of icebergs 

 south of 48°N. Trivers (1994) defined an 

 extreme ice season as one where more 

 than 600 icebergs drifted south of 48°N. 

 Trivers also defined a moderate season, in 

 terms of length, as one between 105 and 

 180 days. 



Canadian Support 



The Canadian Government provided 

 a great deal of support during the 2003 

 season, as they do every year. CIS 

 conducted ice reconnaissance using a 

 SLAR equipped Dash-7 airplane, focusing 

 primarily on sea ice. Provincial Airlines is 

 a private company that provided 

 reconnaissance services on contract to 

 DFO throughout the year, to CIS from June 

 through December and to the offshore oil 



industry. DFO flights by Provincial Airlines 

 monitored fishing vessel activity and 

 frequently carried them into areas of high 

 iceberg concentrations. Canadian support 

 of BAPS was also an integral part of MP's 

 operations. The models are connected via 

 the internet and "speak" to each other 

 numerous times each day. For example, 

 CIS retrieves environmental data (waves, 

 currents, sea surface temperatures, etc.) 

 that reside on HP's BAPS. IIP received 

 data on icebergs crossing into our AOR in 

 a similar method. 



Ongoing Research 



In an effort to continuously improve 

 through the use of technology, IIP 

 participated in the Global Monitoring for 

 Environment and Security (GMES) 

 program, which was sponsored by the 

 European Space Agency. liP was an end 

 user of ice products from the Northern 

 View team, which was led by C-CORE. 

 Envisat and Radarsat images were 

 analyzed by the C-CORE iceberg/ship 

 detection algorithm and the location of the 

 targets were sent to IIP in MANICE code, 

 approximately 4-5 hours after image 

 acquisition. The C-CORE algorithm 

 detected hard targets in the satellite 

 imagery and distinguished ships from 

 icebergs. IIP received data from 45 

 Envisat and Radarsat MANICE messages 

 from May l" through July 1l'^ 2003. 

 Ongoing analysis is taking place to 

 evaluate the algorithm by comparing the 

 MANICE messages received from C- 

 CORE, with iceberg information from HP's 

 BAPS system. Ice Patrol hopes to 

 continue its participation in GMES during 

 the 2004 iceberg season. 



