Fig 8. Side-Looking Airborne Radar Sea Ice Imagery showing thick 
polar pack ice north of Greenland, dissected by a network of 
refrozen leads and polynyas, between 859 N. and 869 N. along 60° W, 
21 April 1962. Area is 1,800 square miles (30 x 60 miles). 
Altitude: 18,300 m (about 60,000 ft.). 
(Published in "The Role of Drifting Stations in Sea-ice Prediction 
Studies" by R.D. Ketchum, Jr., and W.I. Wittmann, U.S. Naval 
Oceanographic Office, Washington, D.C. 20390). 
ment, and fracture pattern analysis. Pressure ridge patterns could 
sometimes be identified when they were present on a low-backscatter 
background. The L band radar had potential value for mapping the 
areal distribution for surface topography. This wavelength did not 
receive discriminative backscatter from various ice types but saw 
only the more prominent topographic features, such as ridges and 
hummocks. The P band did not appear to have any characteristics 
that would make it valuable for sea ice mapping. Only the most 
prominent features, such as large fractures and floes, were imaged 
by this radar. 
During the experiment in question the effective pulse width used 
was 0.25 usec, theoretically allowing a range resolution of about 
  
38 metres.