Iceberg Reconnaissance & Oceanographic Operations 



Iceberg Reconnaissance 



The Ice Reconnaissance 



Detachment is a subunit under 

 Connmander, International Ice Patrol with 

 Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City 

 providing the aircraft platform. The IRD is 

 deployed to observe and report ice and 

 oceanographic conditions on the Grand 

 Banks of Newfoundland. Oceanographic 

 observations are used for operational and 

 research purposes. 



Ice Patrol's pre-season IRD 

 departed on 30 January 2002 to determine 

 the early season iceberg distribution. 

 Regular IRDs operated from Newfoundland 

 approximately every other week from 13 

 Feb 2002 through 10 Jul 2002. An 

 average of four reconnaissance flights 

 were made during each IRD. Iceberg 

 reconnaissance operations concluded with 



the return of the post-season IRD on 6 

 September 2002. 



Coast Guard aircraft are the primary 

 means of detecting icebergs that form the 

 Limit of All Known Ice. IIP utilizes a Coast 

 Guard C-130 long range aircraft equipped 

 with a Motorola AN/APS-135 Side-Looking 

 Airborne Radar and a Texas Instruments 

 AN/APS-137 Forward-Looking Airborne 

 Radar to conduct iceberg reconnaissance. 

 IIP has used SLAR since 1983 and FLAR 

 since 1993. 



Environmental conditions on the 

 Grand Banks allow adequate visibility only 

 30% of the time during iceberg 

 reconnaissance operations. Therefore, IIP 

 relies heavily on its two airborne radar 

 systems to detect and identify icebergs 

 through cloudy and foggy conditions. The 

 radar combination of SLAR and FLAR to 



Figure 8. Radar reconnaissance plan 



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