AOMORI (Kyodo) A patrol aircraft has observed drift ice in the Sea of Okhotsk for the first time this winter, a command center for the Maritime Self-Defense Force in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, said Monday.
The 20-km-wide, 100-km-long drift ice field was about 160 km north of Mombetsu, Hokkaido, an MSDF official said.
It will be possible to observe the drift ice from land with the naked eye in late January or afterward, a meteorological observatory in Sapporo said.