A 1:300,000 scale airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image of an area of the Arctic Ocean adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canadian High Arctic, is examined to determine the number and characteristics of ice islands in the image and to assess the capability of airborne and satellite SAR to detect ice islands. Twelves ice islands have been identified, and their dimensions range from as large as 5.7 km by 8.7 km to a small as 0.15 km by 0.25 km. A significant SAR characteristic of the shelf ice portions of ice islands is a return with a ribbed texture of alternating lighter and darker grey tones resulting from the undulating shelf ice surfaces of the ice islands. The appearance of the ribbed texture varies according to the ice islands' orientation relative to the illumination direction and concequently the incidence angle. Some ice islands also include extensive areas of textureless dark tone attached to the shelf ice. The weak returns correspond to (1) multiyear landfast sea ice that was attached to the front of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf at the time of calving and which has remained attached since then and (2) multilayer pack ice that has become attached and consolidated since the calving, indicating that ice islands can increase their area and mass significantly as they drift. Other SAR characteristics include straight, bright returns along the edges arising from sea ice pressure ridges or shelf ice cliffs. Other physical characterisitics of ice islands that make them identificable in SAR images include their greater size and shapes longer, thinner, and more angular than those of surrounding pack ice floes. It is evident that ice islands are easily discernible in SAR images and for the future SAR represents a promising technique to obtain a census of ice islands smaller than 300--400 m across are likely to remain undetected, particularly in areas of heavy ice ridging which produces strong SAR clutter. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1990