The military uses the microwave information to
detect ocean wind speeds to feed into weather models, among other uses, but the data happen to be nearly perfect for sensing sea ice, says Walt Meier, a sea - ice specialist with the NSIDC.
This instruments initially designed for measuring
winds at the
ocean surface allow to
detect both the edge of the ice pack and the nature of the ice which it is made of (first - year, old ice,...).