Mission: Seelye Loop
Priority: Baseline
Weather forecasts and satellite imagery showed us a clearing of low clouds in the majority of the Weddell Sea for today, and so IceBridge was able to attempt and successfully complete the baseline sea ice mission Seelye Loop. This is the first sea ice mission for our Fall Antarctic deployment. The Seelye Loop is a repeat mission that has been completed almost every year, and is designed to capture the sea ice freeboard gradient across the Weddell Sea. No ICESat-2 ground tracks were flown during this mission.
The weather forecasts held up and only briefly did we encounter some low clouds near the Brunt ice shelf, causing us to increase our altitude slightly. All instruments performed well with no issues and nearly 100% data collection.
The tapestry of sea ice types along the mission lines was spectacular. Where there were thicker floes, leads, newly formed sea ice, grease ice, frazil ice and hugely ridged ice all mixed together. At the beginning of the mission evaporation from leads in between the ice floe was present. Multiple seals were also spotted on the sea ice.
Outreach: OIB conducted 6 classroom chats today, connecting with 102 students from NY, CA, WI, Canada and South Africa.
Media: During today’s mission OIB hosted the Steelhead 3-person documentary crew where Linette Boisvert, John Sonntag and Robbie Russell were interviewed onboard. Steelhead is making a feature length documentary on melting ice. Their previous film “A Plastic Ocean” made a splash in theaters.
Outlook: OIB hopes to fly another important science mission tomorrow weather permitting.
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