Operation IceBridge is flying in Greenland to measure how much ice has melted over the course of the summer from the ice sheet. The flights, which began on Aug. 25 and will go on until Sept. 21, repeat paths flown this spring and aim to monitor seasonal changes in the elevation of the ice sheet.
NASA researchers are working to improve their forecasts of the size of the Arctic sea ice cover at the end of the summer melt season — but the goal is not just to have a better prediction of sea ice coverage. The challenge of making summer sea ice forecasts allows scientists to test their understanding of the processes that control seasonal sea ice growth and retreat, and to fine-tune computer models that represent connections among the ice, atmosphere and ocean.
Since 1997, NASA has collected data over Helheim Glacier almost every year during annual airborne surveys of the Greenland Ice Sheet using an airborne laser altimeter called the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM). Since 2009 these surveys have continued as part of Operation IceBridge, NASA’s ongoing airborne survey of polar ice and its longest-running airborne mission. ATM measures the elevation of the glacier along a swath as the plane files along the middle of the glacier.
NASA’s annual survey of changes in Arctic ice cover greatly expanded its reach this year in a series of flights that wrapped up on May 12. It was the most ambitious spring campaign in the region for NASA’s Operation IceBridge, an airborne mission to monitor ice changes at Earth’s poles, which also included a rapid-response flight over a new crack in Petermann Glacier, one of the largest and fastest-changing glaciers in Greenland.
The spring NASA Operation IceBridge campaign will take the P-3 to Greenland, Norway, and Alaska over the next 10 weeks. The P-3 last flew with IceBridge on their 2013 Arctic campaign, during which the aircraft made flights out of both Kangerlussuaq and Thule, Greenland.
Operation IceBridge, NASA’s airborne survey of changes in polar ice, is closing in on the end of its eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment, and will likely tie its 2012 campaign record for the most research flights carried out during a single Antarctic season.
SATURDAY, NOV 19:
Hard down day
ESPO at the airport from 0900 - 1600, if any assistance is needed, I’ll be there.
SUNDAY, NOV 20:
06:30 Breakfast bar opens
06:30 Luggage Van Arrives to hotel
07:30 Luggage Truck departs to Airport
08:00-0830 Luggage unload - (Ramp side)
08:30-0900 Logistics Meeting - OIB Ops area
14:00-1700 Avis cars are returned to city center office (optional)
Friday, NOV 18
0700 Regular hotel breakfast hours
0900 Power On (and also a Facebook LIVE Event, see below for details)
1000 Flight Brief
1030 Aircraft door closes
1100 Take Off
0600 - Early breakfast for ground-crew
0800 - Power On
0900 - Flight Brief
0930 - Aircraft door closes
1000 - Take Off
Flight Canceled due to severe turbulence expected at target area and at PUQ airport at the return.
1800: Science/Weather brief at the Sky Bar
