162 
SECOND MEETING HELD ON MONDAY, 12th SEPTEMBER, 1960 
In the Chair: Capt RAGNAR THOREN 
Introduction by the President 
Our Session this afternoon is devoted to the 
work of Working Group 6 of Commission VII 
which is concerned with the interpretation of ice 
— rather a new field, I believe. We are fortunate 
in having Captain Ragnar Thorén of Sweden 
with us. He is with the Naval Staff and Research 
Institute of National Defence, Stockholm, and 
he is no stranger to the International Society. 
He has worked for many years on long distance 
photography and infra red photography, in 
developing the science of photographic inter- 
pretation as tied to naval reconnaissance. 
In 1948, he was invited by the President of 
ISP — then Professor Schermerhorn — to give a 
paper on photographic interpretation at the 
Congress in The Hague, in the Netherlands. As 
a consequence in part, at least, of that paper 
which was given — I think the first on photo 
interpretation — it was decided to form Com- 
mission VII. Therefore, Captain Thorén has 
had a considerable amount to do with our being 
here as a Commission on photographic inter- 
pretation. 
He has since been involved with, and partic- 
ipated in, Commission VII in a number of ways, 
and has published many photographic inter- 
pretation papers. I would call your attention to 
the fact that we shall also have a continuation 
session which will also have some very interest- 
ing things in it. Since Captain Thorén is too 
modest to tell you this himself, he will show you 
some of his own slides on ice and Arctic recon- 
naissance at the continuation session which will 
be held on Wednesday at 15.40 in Room 381. 
This time, it is my pleasure to turn the Ses- 
sion over to Captain Ragnar Thorén of Sweden. 
Introduction by the Chairman, Capt. R. Thorén 
Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a 
real pleasure for the Society and a great honour 
to me to wish you all a hearty welcome to this 
Session of Working Group No. 6 — “Interpreta- 
tion of Ice” — the first one ever held at a World 
Congress. 
This Working Group deals with ice of dif- 
ferent types and conditions in as distantly 
separated areas as the Arctic and the Antarctic. 
In order to get a true knowledge of the ice 
conditions — either the ice is formed by the 
freezing of sea water or formed on land masses 
— photo interpretation generally offers the 
specialist an invaluable aid. Unfortunately, this 
science seems in many cases not to be known 
well enough and ice photos are used merely for 
illustrating purposes. Delegates and collabora- 
tors active in Working Group No. 6 and rep- 
resentatives from Canada, England, Finland, 
Japan, Sweden and the USA are, however, re- 
porting many interesting methods of application 
of ice-interpretation. According to the published 
material, ice photo reconnaissance and inter- 
pretation of ice are used for special purposes 
also in several other countries, among others 
Denmark, Poland and the USSR. 
I now beg to express my most heartfelt 
thanks to all my delegates and collaborators in 
different countries for their great interest in 
this fascinating branch of photo interpretation 
and for their valuable papers, specially written 
for this London Congress. 
Dr Terence Armstrong, of the Scott Polar 
Research-Institute, Cambridge, England, author 
of “The Northern Sea Route” and “The Rus- 
sians in the Arctic: aspects of Soviet exploration 
and exploitation of the far north, 1937—57” and 
many other famous publications, has presented 
a paper entitled “Ice on the Northern Sea 
Route in Relation to the Use of Photogramme- 
try". There are methods under investigation in 
the USSR for determining the ice thickness 
from vertical stereo pairs. Another interesting 
possibility for use of photo interpretation is 
photography, presumably employing television, 
from artificial earth satellites. This could give 
an idea of distribution in the most general terms, 
and even though lacking in detail it would be 
very useful indeed, Dr Armstrong says, adding, 
"It may well be that experiments are being 
made in the USSR with such aims as this in 
view". 
Miss Moira Dunbar of Canada, of the 
Directorate of Physical Research (Geophysics), 
Defence Research Board, Department of Na- 
tional Defence, Ottawa, has presented an inter- 
esting paper on “Ice Navigation and the Role of 
Photo-Interpretation in the Canadian Arctic 
  
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