Approximately 1/2 million square miles.

A normal reconnaissance flight is about 1700 nm long and lasts about 7 hours.

IIP tracks icebergs each year as long as they remain in the Trans Atlantic shipping lanes in the vicinity of the Grand Banks. This is defined as any icebergs south of 48 North latitude.

The Coast Guard has conducted numerous experiments in attempts to determine means for accelerating the disintegration of icebergs. These have included gunfire, mines, torpedoes, depth charges, and bombing. However, the use of conventional explosives or combustibles proves difficult. In addtition to the operational hazards of approaching and boarding an iceberg in a seaway; the theory of explosive demolition shows that a 1,000 lb charge of conventional explosives would be needed to break up approximately 70,000 cubic ft of ice (a growler weighing 1,960 tons) and a hundred such charges would be needed for the destruction of an average berg. Furthermore, to melt a medium-size berg of 100,000 tons would require the complete theoretical heat of combustion of over a quarter of a million gallons of gasoline. Such methods are, of course, economically, as well as practically unsound.

No, International Ice Patrol has done experiments with marking icebergs with dye and by placing electronic position beacons on them. Since icebergs are very dynamic, these markers or beacons either become washed away or dislodged from the iceberg. Icebergs are constantly breaking apart or changing mass. This often results in them completely changing their orientation in the water. Some may even flip over completely as the lower portion melts or breaks apart. Thus you can see the difficulties in placing special markers on icebergs. As a result, the International Ice Patrol uses aerial reconnaissance as its primary method of monitoring icebergs in order to provide the mariner with iceberg limit information in the North Atlantic ocean.

Ice Patrol receives iceberg reports from a variety of sources, including commercial shipping and aerial reconnaissance supported by several Canadian government agencies and private industry. Ice Patrol's own aerial reconnaissance accounts for less than one-third of the icebergs detected during a season.

Generally, there are two areas where technological improvements can be made. These are iceberg reconnaissance and iceberg modeling:

International Ice Patrol (IIP) monitors and broadcasts the southeastern, southern, and southwestern limits of icebergs in the vicinity of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Because of the chronically foggy conditions over the Grand Banks, IIP relies almost exclusively on radar aboard USCG HC-130H aircraft for iceberg reconnaissance. Please click on the link below to view the complete paper written on this subject by Dr. Don Murphy and Geoff Trivers.

From 1960 to 1971, Ice Patrol maintained a hand plot of the iceberg's predicted motion. Ice Patrol used vector addition of the effects of the wind and sea current on icebergs to predict their motion. The exact origin and basis of this technique was not recorded but was based upon research conducted by Ice Patrol since its inception. Please click on the link below to view the complete paper written on this subject.