One of the first photos taken by Envisat, ESA's Earth observation satellite in April 2002.
The image is a colour composite generated from ASAR data acquired on 8 April 2002 in Alternating Polarisation (AP) Mode. The red channel contains the VV polarised image; the green channel contains the HH polarised image; the blue channel contains the magnitude of the difference between the amplitudes in VV and HH.
It shows an ice-infested segment of the White Sea on Russia’s northern coast. Flowing into it from the southeast is the Severnaya Dvina, on whose eastern bank lies the city of Arkhangelsk (Archangel). To the north is the peninsula of Kolskiy Poluostrov, Russia’s northwestern extremity. Archangel was founded in 1584 by Ivan the Terrible and it is here that Peter the Great developed the first shipbuilding yard. Since then, Archangel has been considered the cradle of Russian shipbuilding and is of major strategic importance as a port, from where lumber, cut from the surrounding forests, is exported throughout the world.
This image shows that during early April the sea that surrounds the port is still heavily infested with ice floes. It is also interesting to note the offshore barrier that extends along the eastern coastline, constructed to provide an ice-free passage for this important shipping route.