A few groups have attempted to construct sea ice estimates for the pre-satellite era using various combinations of land, ship, submarine, buoy and
aircraft measurements made over the years, e.g., the Chapman & Walsh dataset or the Zakharov dataset (Note that the server for the Zakharov dataset is not always online, so the link sometimes doesn't work).
Not exact matches
But Holland and Webster assumed that
measurements taken before
aircraft and satellites
made storms easier to spot could have missed as many as five hurricanes per year.
The only exception was
aircraft, since despite being two models that exist (Airbus A320 and A380), we were unable to obtain access to either of them to
make the
measurements.»
Salstein looked at wind and pressure
measurements from a National Weather Service analysis that
makes use of a combination of ground - based,
aircraft, and space - based observations.
The second test compared model BC concentrations in the atmosphere above the surface with
measurements made by
aircraft.
So, a sea ice estimate for a region constructed from shipping reports in the 1920s might not be directly comparable to an estimate for the same region from the 1940s
made from
aircraft measurements.
The
aircraft also
made in situ
measurements of cloud microphysics and ice nuclei, as well as meteorological state parameters and radiative fluxes, which were important study inputs.
Research
aircraft can
make measurements at almost any location at any time desired.