Polar View

Polar View sea ice monitoring service

Start date
1 April, 2013
End date
31 March, 2014

Polar View – developed in the Antarctic by an international consortium of sea ice experts – provides a near-real-time sea ice information service for ship operators.

Use of the service helps minimise delays, improve efficiency, and take action to avoid life-threatening safety hazards, damage to vessels and potentially severe consequences for the environment. Polar View is widely used by commercial and tourist shipping, and by national polar research programmes, fisheries vessels and regional rescue coordination centres.  The service is also available in the Arctic.

Polar View is an international consortium providing a wide variety of earth observation products that monitor the Polar Regions and mid-latitude areas affected by ice and snow. The Polar View team includes government agencies, research institutes, system developers, service providers, and end users from 17 countries.

For the first decade of its operation, Polar View was a project supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission, with participation from the Canadian Space Agency, under the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. Polar View was formally incorporated under the name Polar View Earth Observation Ltd. in the UK as of October 28, 2011.

British Antarctic Survey is one of the service’s initiators, contributing its world-renowned expertise in polar earth observation technologies, applications and research.

 


Polar View in the Antarctic

8 February, 2010

As the Antarctic field season continues with the usual mix of exciting research programmes new enhancements to the online satellite image system that improves ship safety and efficiency are launched. …