OIB completed the CryoVEx line which consisted of an underflight of CryoSat-2 in coordination with ESA's CryoVEx operating a Norlandair Twin Otter and AWI's Polar 5 aircraft from the PAMARCMiP project. Poor weather at Alert yesterday grounded the Twin Otter and Polar 5 for the planned mission on the previous day so this flight was launched to achieve coordination during another CryoSat-2 overpass. The mission was designed to account for the earlier closing time of Thule today, and included a delayed take-off to better estimate the launch probability of the other aircraft. Good communication with the other planes enabled us to safely fly at an altitude of 1750 feet and achieve the full 2-18 GHz bandwidth of the snow radar. We spotted the other planes about midway through on our return line at about 1600Z with the Twin Otter flying under us and the Polar 5 slightly offset to the east and much lower in altitude. CryoSat-2 passed overhead at 1641Z about 2.5 minutes after we had finished the line. Weather was very good for the flight with only a few patchy layers of thin haze about midway through the flight. All instruments performed well making for a very successful flight and creating a tremendous collaborative opportunity between the three aircraft and satellite data sets.

Data volumes
ATM: T5:  22 Gb        T6:  68 Gb
FLIR:  9 Gb
Cambot: 28 Gb
KT19: 10 Mb
DMS: 63.3 Gb
Snow/Ku radar: 600 Gb  (2-18 GHz operation)
MCoRDS: Did not operate
Accumulation radar: 298 Gb of test data
Gravity: 2.5 Gb
data on: 1227
data off: 1644