Mission: Geikie 02
Priority: High

This mission flies the centerlines of eight Geikie Peninsula glaciers. These are Sorgenfri, Christian IV, Bartholins, and South glaciers, plus five more glaciers with unknown names. We transit to and from the Geikie area along master grid lines and ICESat-1 ground tracks. For 2015, we added a crossing of a proposed core site on the Renland ice cap, plus an improved centerline of the Vestfjord Glacier. For 2018, we replace one of the east-west crossing lines with the “111” line, to accommodate a request from MacFerrin et al. 

A promising forecast for Geikie 02 for several days, more so than for any other mission, favored this mission and indeed it was the most viable mission today. We launched as clouds approached Kangerlussuaq, expecting for the 111 line across the ice sheet to be mostly clouded over. Fortunately, they were higher clouds than expected that we were able to fly under for nearly the entire line, except briefly at the western end. Otherwise, skies were mostly clear across eastern Greenland during the rest of the mission in that sector, with brief periods of cloud encountered near the termini of a couple of the flatter tidewater glacier flowlines we surveyed. Numerous, varied glacier termini were crossed, innumerable polar bear tracks were observed a couple of their owners were also spotted. On the return line across the ice sheet, we encountered significant clouds and were unable to survey a significant portion of that line. All instruments performed well, with no issues reported.

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