IcySea

IcySea is a map-based sea-ice information application from Drift+Noise for vessels operating in the Arctic and Antarctic. Sea-ice conditions change continuously (Arctic ice can drift more than 50 km a day), the data needed to navigate safely is scattered across many sources, and ships in polar waters often have only low-bandwidth satellite internet.

IcySea brings these near-real-time sources together in one map: synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from Sentinel-1 and the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM), sea-ice concentration from JAXA's AMSR2 passive microwave sensor (updated up to eight times a day), true-colour MODIS optical images, official ice charts from national ice services (USNIC, DMI, NWS, CIS, SHN and MET Norway), a satellite-based surface temperature layer, and ice-drift forecasts from the TOPAZ5 and ICON models. Users download radar tiles for their area on demand in low or high resolution, see the age of every tile, and can display the POLARIS risk index outcome for their vessel's ice class. Routes (including RTZ/RT3 import) and points of interest can be drawn and measured, and the vessel's own position can be shown from a GNSS receiver.

The progressive web app runs in a browser or installed on desktop, tablet or phone, keeps downloaded data for offline use and is designed for low-bandwidth connections; Drift+Noise describes the service as Polar Code compliant. The provider states that IcySea is regularly used aboard more than 60 ice-going vessels, including Le Commandant Charcot, the research icebreaker Polarstern and RSV Nuyina. Its customers include expedition cruise operators Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, PONANT, Lindblad Expeditions and Seabourn, cargo shippers BigLift Shipping and Desgagnés, research and government vessels from several countries, and fishing vessels in Canadian, Greenlandic and Norwegian waters. Oceanwide Expeditions adopted it on four vessels in 2025 after operational trials. New users get a 14-day free trial; continued access requires a subscription.