This mission is a repeat of missions flown each year of OIB beginning in 2009. Timing on this flight is challenging because we must land at Thule before the airfield closes at 1600 local time, which is five hours ahead of Fairbanks local time. This means that we must depart Fairbanks before approximately 0200 local time, and this in turn means that we must fly the first few hours of this flight in darkness. For 2016 the portion of this flight north of Ellesmere Island was slightly modified to improve the distribution of coverage in that area. In addition to Level-1 Requirements SI1 and SI2, it addresses sea ice level 1 baseline requirement SI3a by providing data on the thickness gradient and distribution of perennial and seasonal ice across the Arctic Basin.



This flight proceeded uneventfully and with fewer clouds than expected. We encountered ground fog halfway through the mission, but ATM T6 was able to mostly penetrate the fog and only a few minutes of data lost. Because it was overcast during the North Pole Transect, we also overflew a study site on shore-fast ice near Alert in collaboration with Christian Haas. All instruments performed well, save a couple of Applanix error messages on the ATM systems.