New High‐Resolution Images of Summer Arctic Sea Ice

[1] In 1995 a group of government and academic scientists were appointed by the vice president of the United States to review and advise on acquisitions of imagery obtained by classified intelligence satellites (National Technical Means) and to recommend the declassification of certain data sets for the benefit of science. The group is called MEDEA and was first described by Richelson [1998]. MEDEA disbanded in 2000 but reassembled in 2008. On 15 June 2009, under the auspices of MEDEA, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released to the public as Literal Image Derived Products (LIDPs) numerous images with 1-meter resolution acquired since 1999 at six locations in the Arctic Basin (Beaufort Sea, Canadian Arctic, Fram Strait, East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Point Barrow). These locations are named “fiducial sites” to suggest that the collected imagery establishes a baseline data set for understanding recent and future changes. Data in the Global Fiducials Library (GFL) can be accessed via http://gfl.usgs.gov/. This data repository is updated by USGS as additional data become available.