Image Analysis Ice Charts

The Canadian Ice Service acquires Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite imagery in order to have data available for the provision of ice information. Upon request of specific clients, Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery will be analysed in more detail than for the daily ice charts and these image analysis usually available to the public. The area covered by the image analysis coincides with an area related to the satellite path. The path of the satellite changes each day so the chart area shifts from one day to the next. The usual width of the satellite data collection for ice information is about 500 kilometres. At the Canadian Ice Service, we use 100 metre resolution.

When analysing the satellite imagery, the analyst takes into consideration other data such as optical satellite imagery and visual observations from ship and aircraft. The analysis of these images is particularly challenging in conditions such as when seas are rough or if water is on the ice either from melt or rainfall.

Ice conditions are described using the International Standard Ice Code. The code describes the ice in terms of total and partial concentrations, the stages of development and form of the four main ice types present.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated October 20, 2025, 03:53 (UTC)
Created October 20, 2025, 03:53 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Climatology Meteorology Atmosphere
Title
Title for the Dataset.
Image Analysis Ice Charts
Description
A description of the dataset.

The Canadian Ice Service acquires Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellite imagery in order to have data available for the provision of ice information. Upon request of specific clients, Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery will be analysed in more detail than for the daily ice charts and these image analysis usually available to the public. The area covered by the image analysis coincides with an area related to the satellite path. The path of the satellite changes each day so the chart area shifts from one day to the next. The usual width of the satellite data collection for ice information is about 500 kilometres. At the Canadian Ice Service, we use 100 metre resolution.

When analysing the satellite imagery, the analyst takes into consideration other data such as optical satellite imagery and visual observations from ship and aircraft. The analysis of these images is particularly challenging in conditions such as when seas are rough or if water is on the ice either from melt or rainfall.

Ice conditions are described using the International Standard Ice Code. The code describes the ice in terms of total and partial concentrations, the stages of development and form of the four main ice types present.

Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2014-02-26
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License
License used to access the dataset.
Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/dddd7529-ca5f-440f-91ae-2092df86b361
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
Environment and Climate Change Canada | Environnement et Changement climatique Canada
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
Author
Author of the dataset.
Author Email
Email of the author.
[email protected]
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
Field Value
Version
Version of the datatset
None
Source
Source of the dataset.
None
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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