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. IIP 

 has used SLAR since 1983 and FLAR 

 since 1993. The radar combination of 

 SLAR and FLAR to detect and identify 

 icebergs in pervasive low visibility 

 conditions minimizes the flight hours 

 required to accurately determine the LAKI. 

 The radar combination allows IIP to use 30 

 NM track spacing compared to the 10 NM 

 track spacing used prior to 1983. The 

 C-130 with SLAR and FLAR covers a 

 larger ocean area and still provides 200% 

 radar coverage (Figure 9). IIP can 

 currently cover 40,000 NM^ at 30 NM track 

 spacing in any visibility conditions. A 

 detailed description of HP's 



reconnaissance strategy is provided at 

 http://www.uscg.mil/lantareayiip/FAQ/faq25. 

 html. 



An IRD was deployed to HP's base 

 of operations in St. John's, Newfoundland 

 for 128 days during the 2000 ice season 

 (Table 3). IIP scheduled airborne 

 reconnaissance every other week. IIP flew 

 99 sorties, 28 of which were transit flights 

 to and from St. John's. 54 sorties were 

 iceberg reconnaissance flights to 

 determine the southwestern, southern and 

 southeastern LAKI. Five sorties were 

 research flights flown in support of a joint 

 research project with the Canadian Ice 

 Service to evaluate satellite radar imagery 

 for iceberg detection. Twelve sorties were 

 logistics flights from Coast Guard Air 

 Station Elizabeth City to maintain and 

 repair the aircraft. Figure 10 displays 

 associated IIP flight hours for 2000. 



Table 3. 2000 IRD summary, 



IIP used 584.1 flight hours in 

 2000, a 46% increase over 1999 (Figure 

 11). This increase was due to a 

 moderate ice season in 2000 compared 

 to no ice season in 1999 in terms of 

 season length. Figure 12 compares flight 

 hours with the number of icebergs south 

 of 48°N latitude since 1986. This figure 

 demonstrates that IIP expends a fairly 

 consistent number of flight hours but the 

 number of icebergs varies significantly. 

 A few icebergs can extend the 

 geographic distribution of the LAKI even 

 with a low number of icebergs passing 

 south of 48°N. IIP is often in the position 

 of having to patrol a large ocean area 

 with widely distributed icebergs. 



Logistics 

 Hours Transit 



Researctn 9% r Hours 



Hours 



Figure 10 2000 flight hours. 



11 



