The Canadian Ice Service (CIS) promotes safe and efficient maritime operations and protects Canada's environment by providing reliable and timely information about ice and iceberg conditions in Canadian waters. New initiatives at the CIS have highlighted the need for improved information regarding the seasonal decay of sea ice. Specifically, CIS requires reliable, efficient techniques whereby the state of ice decay can be identified and monitored using satellite optical/IR and active microwave sensors. This information would then be reported through CIS traditional charts, used to support the Arctic Ice Regime Shipping System, and provide information for prediction of first year ice break-up. In the past few years, considerable effort has been spent categorizing and characterizing the decay process of first year sea ice and its influence remote sensing signatures. Efforts are now under way to link this research to the operational sensors that the CIS relies on for ice-monitoring.

The paper describes in detail the motivation behind current efforts to develop techniques to monitor Arctic sea ice decay at the CIS. Operational techniques to monitor the state of ice decay with meteorological satellite sensors AVHRR and OLS, are described and proposed. Linkages between stage of ice melt and satellite signatures are explained and the utility of this information in operationally monitoring ice decay is examined and evaluated. Scenarios whereby this information can be used in predicting the fracture of fast ice edges (to prevent search and rescue events involving northern hunters and tourists) and used to provide information regarding the ability of ships to enter ice-encumbered waters are described.