How to read the maps |
The maps showing the location
of our polar bears contain a lot of information about the condition
of the sea ice. The pure white areas are heavy patches of sea ice
with little open water, described on the legend as "very close
drift ice". Progressively more blue color indicates areas with
less ice. Open water, where there is no ice at all, is marked in
pure blue. "Fast ice" is found along coastlines, frozen
fast to the land.
The latest position of the bear is marked by a colored dot. This
is generally updated every day but if we have not made contact with
the bear for several days a "trail" will be indicated
by a colored line. This indicates how far the bear traveled between
the last known position and the current position.
At the bottom of the map are a couple of useful statistics. The
date is displayed by year-month-day and indicates the day for which
the location was taken. The distance that is given indicates how
far the bear has traveled since it was originally tagged.
This bear was tagged in late August 2002 and has traveled 571 kilometers
in about two months.
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Legend:
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