The National Ice Center anticipates the commissioning of RADARSAT-2 and the decommissioning of “operational” Radarsat-1 data on May 2nd. While this is an exciting development for the International and Scientific communities at large, it will impact the quality of sea ice analysis and charts produced by the National Ice Center. The following statements will apply when RADARSAT-2 is declared operational:

1. The International Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for RADARSAT-1 will expire and the United States’ National Ice Center (NIC) will no longer have free access to RADARSAT-1 data. In 2007, the NIC processed and analyzed 10,750 images from the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) to cover the Bering Sea, Cook Inlet, Chukchi Sea, West Arctic Basin, Beaufort Sea, and portions of the Northern Sea Route.

2. Limited funding for RADARSAT-1 & 2 data over the ASF region will help meet U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard requirements, but all requirements will not be satisfied.

3. Because there will no longer be free-access to RADARSAT-1 data and future funding must meet all Synthetic Aperture Radar requirements for the sea-ice analyses, the NIC expects to experience a 74% decrease in RADARSAT coverage within the ASF region.

4. The NIC is currently receiving near-real time (within 1 hour of downlink) RADARSAT-1 data from the ASF for operational use. When RADARSAT-2 is declared operational, ASF will no longer downlink RADARSAT-1 data under the International MOU. To date, the ASF does not have the capability to receive/process RADARSAT-2 data. Also, when this capability is obtained, the use of the onboard recorder over this area will reduce the amount of data available to meet the NIC’s operational demands because of its limited storage capacity.

5. This major shift in RADARSAT will not have significant affects on the production of weekly chart analysis; however, it will impact the ability of the NIC to provide near-real time support to vessels operating within this area.

6. The NIC is working to secure funding for additional data over the ASF and Great Lakes regions with ENVISAT, ALOS, and ERS-2.

7. To help ensure that a high level of sea ice products and support are maintained by the NIC, please forward any feedback and/or questions to the NIC’s Liaison Officer at liaison@natice.noaa.gov. A customer survey is also available on the NIC’s website at http://www.natice.noaa.gov.