High-resolution satellite imagery has emerged as the best solution for polar bear researchers from the US Geological Survey and other organizations to count white bears in a vast white landscape.

Recently, the US and Canadian scientists used the technique of satellite imagery in an area that was also being surveyed by helicopter. After comparing the findings, they found that results of both were similar for the number of polar bears in the study area.

"The remarkable consistency between our estimates of abundance derived from imagery and established aerial survey techniques suggests that bear identification using imagery was quite accurate", said the study.

The study, intended to come up with an estimate of polar bears by using satellite imagery technology, took place at Rowley Island in Nunavut's Foxe Basin in summer. The area is ice-free during this time, and makes the bears most visible. It was September 2012 when the estimates of polar bears were taken.

Due to high bear density during summer and an ideal setting provided by the flat terrain to evaluate the use of satellite imagery, the researchers decided to select Rowley as the study site, said study leader Seth Stapleton, a former USGS scientist who is now at the University of Minnesota.

As many as 94 bears were showed by estimates of satellite imagery compared to 77 individuals of the aerial counts. An estimated population of 102 polar bears in the island was yielded when a model was applied.

The study has also suggested that satellite imagery is a great way to monitor other Arctic animals, like musk oxen and caribou, said Todd Atwood, research leader for the USGS Polar Bear Research Program.