Operational Use Of Sea Ice Remote Sensing Tools To Support Navigation In The Arctic And Antarctic

Abstract

To provide operational support to navigation in the Arctic and Antarctic the application of satellite imagery data revealing sea ice conditions and distribution is considered to be very important. Actually, real-time visual, infra-red and VHF microwave satellite imagery and airborne SLAR data are being used widely for these purposes. The quality of informational support to navigation depends to a great extent on the quality and methods of satellite imagery processing, downlink quality and speed and data assimilation methods. One of the main goals in operational use of remotely sensed data is to perform combined processing of multichannel satellite imagery and airborne SLAR data. Combined use of radar, thermo-microwave and optical images of the underlying surface allows to augment the number of definable ice cover characteristics and to avoid ambiguity in defining particular characteristics. Within the framework of the automatic control ice data system that is being established actually, a complex facility for automatic reception of remotely sensed data and interactive processing of multichannel satellite imagery is in the process of development. The following product can be acquired with the help of the above facility: - fragments of digital images after their being submitted to preliminary processing (geolocation, calibration and correction-normalization), that may be transmitted via digital downlinks aboard the vessels and ice-breakers operating in the Arctic. - sea ice distribution charts compiled in the interactive regime with application of combined analysis of multichannel satellite imagery and airborne SLAR data, that may be transmitted to the marine operations headquarters, aboard the vessels and ice-breakers via telegraph, facsimile and telefax downlinks. To support navigation in the Antarctic waters where satellite imagery is supposed to be the major data sourse with regard to sea ice distribution, it is planned to use interactive technical facilities systems to be deployed at Bellingshausen, Molodezhnaya and Leningradskaya stations. At the present time automatic control processing of the ice cover satellite imagery is carried out at R/V Akademik Fedorov . Operational data transmission is carried out via satellite, facsimile and telefax downlinks.