Sea Ice Atlas from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imagery 1992-1999

Visible and thermal images are provided for the austral summer months, while only a thermal image is provided for the dark winter months. Due to either missing data or the lack of suitable imagery it has not been possible to provide a complete coverage over the period in all regions. Those 500 images presented were culled from some 20,000 images consulted.

Images are presented with a schematic map indicating the major divisions of the image into open water, sea ice, cloud, land etc. Each month is accompanied by a short description of the sea ice conditions. The concept of a Sea Ice Atlas for scientific purposes was first proposed in 1999 and funded by the Australian Antarctic Division on the recommendation of the ANARE Mapping and Geographic Information Committee in 1999.

Dr Kelvin Michael at IASOS was contracted to supervise the project and produce the Sea Ice Atlas in both hard copy and digital format. The AVHRR data are down loaded at the HRPT receiving facility Australian Antarctic Station of Casey. The HRPT archive is kept at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC at the University of Tasmania.