Mission: Smith-Pope-Kohler IS-2
Priority: Baseline
 
The successful completion of the Smith-Pope-Kohler IS-2 baseline mission ends our Punta Arenas deployment on a very high note! All forecasts agreed that all cloud cover should dissipate by mission arrival, and after staring into thick clouds over Eights Coast and near Pine Island Bay, a slow clearing and quick peek of the Thwaites shelf in the distance were a welcome sight.
 
Skies were clear over nearly the entire survey apart from a few, small scattered clouds and a larger bank over the most inland part of the survey near Toney Mountain.  Blowing snow was apparent over most of the surface. Turbulence haunted us all day, but the pilots maneuvered the tracks masterfully and all instruments performed well. 
 
Over the shortest latency ICESat-2 ground track 0493, IceBridge flew at 5000’ and offset to the west by 1310 meters to ensure coincidence with ICESat-2 due to its current pointing bias. Underlined tracks below indicate that ICESat-2 surveyed prior to IceBridge.  All remaining tracks were flown at 1500’.  ATM reported minimal signal loss over the clouds, and snow radar dropped out briefly while ascending to 5000’.
 
ICESat-2 ground track and survey latency:
0180, t = 19 days
0493, t = 23 hours 15 minutes (5000’ AGL, offset 1310 m west)
0554, t = 3 days
0737, t = 15 days
0744, t = 16 days
 
Outreach: Emily Schaller led our final classroom chats of the campaign. In all, we conducted 37 classroom chats that reached 1,052 students in 10 US states, Canada, Togo, Ghana and South Africa. Many, many thanks to all who participated.
 
Outlook: Our takeoff today was delayed 2 hours (arrival back in Punta Arenas near midnight), which means that the entire IceBridge team will work on little rest for the pack up and move to Ushuaia early in the morning tomorrow.  The impressive commitment of all on board, on the ground, and back at home will keep us on track for restarting science flights this Saturday out of Ushuaia.  
 
List of attached figures:

1. Map of today’s science mission. (John Sonntag/NASA)
2. The DC-8 wing comes into view as we near Mt. Murphy from the Crosson Ice Shelf. (Brooke Medley/NASA)
3. Snow streams over mountain near Kohler Glacier. (Katy Mersmann/NASA)
4. A peek down into a giant crevasse on Pope Glacier. (Brooke Medley/NASA)
5. Destroyed blue ice where Smith Glacier pours into the Crosson Ice Shelf (Katy Mersmann/NASA). 
6. New sea ice forms while snow blows off the cliff at the front of the Dotson Ice Shelf (Brooke Medley/NASA)