Mission: Long Line IS-2
Priority: High
 
Today’s IceBridge science mission was of particular importance and a milestone of the campaign thus far, completing the FIRST EVER coincident under flight with ICESat-2! This took place during the high priority land ice mission, Long Line IS-2. This mission is a new mission for OIB, specifically planned in an area and along an IS-2 ground track where there is little influence by surface roughness, slope and elevation change on the ice sheet. This allows for the best estimates of instrumental biases. 9 crossovers are completed during flight, going back and forth between the left and right beam pair centerlines every 100km. This was also the first time OIB has flown in this particular area, making data collection that much more important. 
 
For today’s mission, clouds worked in our favor. Differing cloud conditions, high, low, opaque and thin clouds as well as clear conditions were intermittent along the flight line. These conditions will allow for a detailed look into the forward scattering experienced by IS-2 when clouds are present over the ice surface. All instruments performed well, collecting 100% data, with CAMBOT missing about 15-20 minutes of data due to some issues.
 
The ICESat-2 ground track that was flown and its latency between the IS-2 crossovers is listed below:
Line: 0362, t=8 hours
 
During our mission, McORDS recorded 2.5 km ice thickness along tributary of Pine Island Glacier. Also our flight line took us within range of the tallest mountain in Antarctica in the xx mountains, the Vinson Massif, which is a 14-mile long ridge.
 
Outreach: iceBridge only had 1 classroom chat today, connecting with 15 middle school students from the local school, Colegio Frances in Punta Arenas. Project Manager Eugenia DeMarco, who was on the ground today, visited the school during the X-chat.
 
Media: Jefferson Beck and Katy Mersmann from NASA joined today’s mission to take photos, and conduct interviews with some of the scientists and engineers onboard. Katy also produced a live Snapchat of our pre-flight brief this morning. As of takeoff it had 4K views.
 
Outlook: OIB hopes to attempt the Mid-Weddell sea ice mission tomorrow night. This will be an overnight mission, weather permitting.
 
List of attached figures:

1. Map of today’s science mission. (John Sonntag/NASA)
2. McORDS Echogram along today’s science mission, showing annual layering of ice and the bedrock below. (Hara Talasila/KU CReSIS)
3. ATM T6 wide scan and T7 narrow scan overlaid of the Punta Arenas airport during our ramp pass. (Matt Linkswiler/NASA)
4. Panorama of the northeast end of the Ohio Range and land ice seen from the end of the long line. These mountains are across the continent near the Ross Sea.  (Jeremy Harbeck/NASA)
5. Panorama of northern Ellsworth Mountains and land ice. Notice the fata morgana (mirages) on top of the peaks.  (Jeremy Harbeck/NASA)
6. Sea ice floes and open water in the Bellingshausen Sea at the edge of the Veneable ice shelf.  (Linette Boisvert/NASA)