International sea ice survey success

The Sea Ice Remote Sensing Validation Experiment on Voyage 1 (2003) was a survey of sea ice and snow cover conditions in the region bounded by 64–65°S and 112–119°E. The purpose of this survey was to obtain data to validate and help improve the algorithms used to derive sea ice geophysical products from a variety of new satellite sensors. This program involved considerable international collaboration with groups from institutions in Belgium, China, Germany, Japan and USA. participating in the voyage. This program was completely successful and one of the more gratifying outcomes that arose from it was the strong integration of the efforts of the teams from different institutions, and the extensive opportunities for future scientific collaboration that have resulted from the work.

There were 27 scientists associated with this project; 20 from overseas institutes. The institutes represented were:

AustraliaAustralian Antarctic Division, Cooperative Research Centre for Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems, University of Tasmania

JapanKitami University, Chiba University, Hokkaido University

BelgiumUniversité Libre de Bruxelles

USA – The University of Kansas, University of Florida, University of Colorado, New York University, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

ChinaPolar Research Institute of China

GermanyAlfred Wegener Institute

Ian Allison, Glaciology Program Leader, AAD & ACE CRC

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