Iceberg Reconnaissance & Oceanographic Operations 



Iceberg Reconnaissance 



The Ice Reconnaissance Detachment is 

 a sub-unit under Commander, International Ice 

 Patrol partnered with Coast Guard Air Station 

 Elizabeth City, which provided the aircraft 

 platform. 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 pre-season IRD departed on 

 29 January 2004 to determine the early season 

 iceberg distribution. The iceberg distribution 

 noted during the pre-season IRD did not 

 warrant regular (every other week) 

 deployments to Newfoundland. Consequently, 

 only one IRD deployed during the six weeks 

 between the end of the pre-season and 24 

 March, which marked the beginning of regular 

 deployments. Because of the limited severity 

 of ice conditions, IRD deployments were 

 shortened from nine to seven days. These 

 abbreviated IRDs, averaging two 



reconnaissance flights per deployment, 

 operated from St. John's, Newfoundland until 3 

 July 2004. Iceberg reconnaissance operations 

 concluded on 30 July 2004 with the return of 

 the post-season IRD. 



Ice Reconnaissance Detachments were 

 deployed to HP's base of operations in St. 

 John's, Newfoundland for 70 days during the 

 2004 season (Table 1). Ice Patrol flew 51 

 sorties, 24 of which were transit flights to and 

 from St. John's. The 27 remaining sorties were 

 iceberg reconnaissance patrols to determine the 

 LAKl. Ice Patrol dedicated a portion of two 

 patrols to ground-truth data collection for use in 

 conjunction with the GMES project, a program 

 sponsored by the European Space Agency. This 

 data will be used to evaluate a computer- 

 based target identification algorithm that may 

 be used in future IIP operations. Ice Patrol 



Table!: 2004 IRD Summary. 



Note: Flight hours include patrol and transit hours. 



IRD #2 includes 18.2 logistics hours. 



participated as an end user through the 

 Northern View element of the project. 

 Appendix E further describes IIP's involvement 

 in the GMES project. In addition to the 51 

 sorties, there were four logistics flights from 

 Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City to 

 maintain and repair the aircraft. Figure 9 

 details IIP's flight hours for 2004. 



Patrol Hours 

 5 2% 



Figure 9. 2004 tlight hours. 



Ice Patrol used 308.8 flight hours in 

 2004, a 20% decrease from 2003 (Figure 10). 

 Figure 11 compares flight hours with the 

 number of icebergs south of 48°N since 1995. 

 This figure demonstrates that IIP annually 



