Northernmost islands of the Siberian Coast

This ERS-1 SAR image has been acquired on 1-3-1994 (see the location of the SAR image) and was used by Børge Ousland on his ski expedition to the North Pole in March 1994. He set out from the northernmost island (lower right corner) and used information in the SAR image to describe the ice conditions and plan his route. He pulled a sled and tried to avoid areas of open water. The upper part of the SAR image shows that the ice pack is dominated by large floes with leads in between, shown as bright signatures.
Legend:
A large ice floes and leads
B pack ice
C glacier (Smiths Island)
D open water
E new frozen ice
F rough new ice
G smooth new ice
H glacier

NERSC, Bergen, Norway

Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry