In 1951 sea ice earned recognition as a hazard to navigation when it caused severe damage to a convoy of Navy ships navigating along the west coast of Greenland during the establishment of a distant early warning station and Thule Air Base, Greenland. Most early sea ice observations were made from coastal stations, transiting ships, and aircraft patrol. However, in 1972, when data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) environmental satellites routinely became available, for the first time it was possible to continuously monitor and map sea ice conditions throughout the world.

Operational and research sea ice activities underway at the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) and as part of NESDIS participation in the National Ice Center (NIC) utilize a number of diverse interactive information processing systems. These systems support multi-platform research and applications development of sea ice and polar products and operational analysis of the remote sensing data and products. In particular, NESDIS and NIC sea ice (SI) science teams exploit these tools in the 1) development and validation of multi-sensor SI products that respond to the user community's needs, 2) expansion of SI and polar research utilizing new technologies and approaches, 3) provision of science support and expertise for the production and development of analyses and forecasts of SI conditions for customers with global, regional and tactical scale interests, and 4) response to operational user requirements. Sensor data processed for sea ice at NESDIS and NIC include passive microwave (SSM/I, AMSU, AMSR), synthetic aperture radar (RADARSAT-1), scatterometer (QuikScat SeaWinds), visible (DMSP OLS, MODIS), and IR (AVHRR).

The content and scope of the National Ice Center (NIC) sea ice products have evolved over time in response to technological advances in spaceborne hardware and algorithm design. Product suites now include ice concentration/analysis maps, ice edge and marginal ice zone detection, and iceberg detections. The National Ice Center currently produces 1) global, weekly, low-resolution, sea ice products, 2) tailored high resolution products and 3) 24-120 hour sea ice forecasts using a coupled ice-ocean model that is initialized using satellite-derived sea ice analyses. The products are produced in a Geographical Information System (GIS) format that makes them accessible to the government mapping and charting community.

Looking toward new techniques, NOAA is exploring pre-operational research and development work with spaceborne altimeters. The new generation of altimeter satellites, namely the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Envisat, NASA's ICESat and ESA's CryoSat (2004 launch), have the potential - unique among all remote sensing satellites - to provide accurate estimates of sea ice thickness. NOAA/ORA, in collaboration with NASA and University College London is now conducting research, more specifically airborne remote sensing experiments using NASA's Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) laser system, to validate the capabilities of these altimeter satellites to estimate and monitor sea ice thickness and mass. Long term goals include the tracking of multi-year sea ice, the precise monitoring of ongoing inter-annual loss of Arctic sea ice and an improved understanding of Arctic ocean dynamics.