Summary and Conclusions
•The Antarctic sea ice cover is generally stable but some areas are largely varying. 
•The ice cover at the Bellingshausen/Amundsen Seas is declining rapidly but much of the decline is compensated by increases in the ice cover at the Ross Sea.
•The ice cover in 2001 and 2002 are very different not only in the B/A region but at the entire hemisphere.
•AMSR is an excellent successor to SSM/I.
•Advantages of AMSR includes: (a) More accurate ice concentration and better definition of ice edges – because of higher resolution and more frequency channels; (b) Wider swath and smaller gap around the North Pole; (c) Improved masking of ice free ocean; and (d) Improved masking of ice free land/ocean boundaries.
•Some disagreements between sensors are apparent but may be largely due to resolution differences and side lobe effects.
•Co-registered and coincident AMSR and MODIS data in tandem will provide complementary and more accurate information about the ice cover AMSR can be used to assess the accuracy of historical passive microwave data on sea ice.
•The validation of sea ice products from satellite data is very important
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