The Ross Sea is known to play a major role for the total Southern Ocean ice cover and mass as well as to contribute via deep bottom water formation to the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). One of the relevant processes is water mass modification triggered by polynya events and the associated cooling and brine enrichment of the water masses by ice formation. The Terra Nova Bay polynya and the Ross Ice Shelf polynya are known as so-called ice factories and it has been suggested that both are relevant contributors to the AABW. Oceanic conditions in the southwestern Ross Sea are relatively well studied, for example the CLIMA project of Italian PNRA collected an almost uninterrupted time series from 1995 to 2009, while estimates about polynya area and the associated ice production have remained sparse until recently. Based on a classification technique invented by Markus and Burns (1995) the sub-daily polynya area was retrieved from satellite microwave radiometry for the years 1992 to 2008 with 5 km grid resolution. Here we show a comparison of oceanographic data (temperature, salinity and currents) obtained about 150 km northeast of Terra Nova Bay (mooring D), the polynya area and estimates of the associated ice production rates for Terra Nova Bay and the Ross Ice Shelf polynya. Based on lag-correlation analysis, the relationships between polynya area and ice production and changes in the temperature and salinity observations are examined. The time series of observed water currents aids in the interpretation of the results.