In addition to furthering this fundamental research, the data are also used to help forecast weather and ice conditions, evaluate possible hazards, and contribute to the overall understanding of environmental impacts in the Arctic region. T raditionally there have been many obstacles in acquiring sea ice motion data. Sea ice is by nature located in remote, inaccessible regions, and the ice extends over a large area. Though ice motion can be determined by placing sensors directly onto ice floes, the cost of installing and maintaining many field instruments is prohibitively high. One can readily see the benefits of studying sea ice remotely, from satellites.
T here are also complications with monitoring sea ice from space, however.
Cloudy skies hide the sea ice from some sensors, and long winter nights thwart the ability to image polar regions with visible light. The radar signals also penetrate through cloud cover, a characteristic which is especially valuable to oceanographers. Scientists determined that a satellite-borne SAR could routinely and reliably image large regions of sea ice. The GPS generated sea ice motion , sea ice classifications , and ocean wave spectra data from ASF's collection of ERS-1 SAR imagery. Scientists could then use the derived geophysical information for their various research projects.