Report of the International Ice Patrol in the North Atlantic Season of 2011

• Main Author: In The North Atlantic
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Belle Isle; Greenland; Lanes; Strait of Belle Isle; glacier; North Atlantic; Petermann glacier
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.423.7085; http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/iip/2011_IIP_Annual_Report.pdf

Patrol's seNices and ice conditions during the 2011 season. With only three icebergs crossing 48 ° N, this was one of the lightest seasons on record, and the fourth time in the last seven years that icebergs did not threaten transatlantic shipping lanes. Transatlantic shipping benefited by saving hundreds of miles per voyage compared to an average season transit. However, several fragments of an ice island that calved from the Petermann Glacier in Northern Greenland in August of 2010 drifted south along the Labrador Coast. The fragments contained billions of tons of ice but remained inshore and did not affect mariners on the Grand Banks. The fragments persisted through the end of the ice year in September, significantly affecting use of the Strait of Belle Isle for much of the navigation season. The Ice and Environmental Conditions section presents a discussion of the meteorological and oceanographic conditions that contributed to the light season. During 2011, Ice Patrol vigilantly monitored the iceberg danger and issued daily products under the North American Ice SeNice (NAIS). Under the growing NAIS partnership, Ice Patrol and the Canadian Ice SeNice agreed to share responsibility for