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:
From: | SCCI | To: | SCCI | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Start: | 10/22/18 13:06 Z | Finish: | 10/23/18 00:14 Z | ||
Flight Time: | 11.1 hours | ||||
Log Number: | 198006 | PI: | Joseph MacGregor | ||
Funding Source: | Bruce Tagg - NASA - SMD - ESD Airborne Science Program | ||||
Purpose of Flight: | Science | ||||
Comments: | "Long Lines IS-2 B", described as a comprehensive validation of ICESat-2 laser beams over land ice and snow extending up the west Antarctic plateau. The aircraft track consisted of two generally parallel lines and crossed back and forth across each other at regular fixed points. ATM: 100% data collection, instruments are all working well, no issues MCoRDS: 100% data collection, instrument is working well, no issues Snow Radar: 100% data collection, instrument is working well, no issues Gravimeter: 4 GB data, instrument is working well, no issues KT-19: 16 GB data, no issues |
198006 | |
---|---|
Flight Hours Approved in SOFRS | 345.8 |
Total Used | 292.8 |
Total Remaining | 53 |
198006 Flight Reports | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Flt # | Purpose of Flight | Duration | Running Total | Hours Remaining | Miles Flown |
10/02/18 | 1287 | Check | 2.6 | 2.6 | 343.2 | 0 |
10/08/18 | 1289 | Transit | 10.1 | 12.7 | 333.1 | 0 |
10/08/18 | 1290 | Transit | 2.8 | 15.5 | 330.3 | 0 |
10/10/18 - 10/11/18 | 1291 | Science | 11.5 | 27 | 318.8 | 0 |
10/11/18 - 10/12/18 | 1292 | Science | 11.6 | 38.6 | 307.2 | 0 |
10/12/18 - 10/13/18 | 1293 | Science | 11.3 | 49.9 | 295.9 | 0 |
10/13/18 - 10/14/18 | 1294 | Science | 10.7 | 60.6 | 285.2 | 0 |
10/15/18 - 10/16/18 | 1295 | Science | 11.1 | 71.7 | 274.1 | 0 |
10/16/18 - 10/17/18 | 1296 | Science | 10.1 | 81.8 | 264 | 0 |
10/18/18 - 10/19/18 | 1297 | Science | 11.1 | 92.9 | 252.9 | 0 |
10/19/18 - 10/20/18 | 1298 | Science | 10.8 | 103.7 | 242.1 | 0 |
10/20/18 - 10/21/18 | 1299 | Science | 10.7 | 114.4 | 231.4 | 0 |
10/22/18 - 10/23/18 | 1300 | Science | 11.1 | 125.5 | 220.3 | 0 |
10/27/18 - 10/28/18 | 1301 | Science | 11.3 | 136.8 | 209 | 0 |
10/30/18 - 10/31/18 | 1302 | Science | 11.7 | 148.5 | 197.3 | 0 |
10/31/18 - 11/01/18 | 1303 | Science | 11.3 | 159.8 | 186 | 0 |
11/01/18 | 1304 | Transit | 0.6 | 160.4 | 185.4 | 0 |
11/03/18 - 11/04/18 | 1305 | Science | 11 | 171.4 | 174.4 | 0 |
11/04/18 | 1306 | Science | 10.8 | 182.2 | 163.6 | 0 |
11/05/18 | 1307 | Science | 10.4 | 192.6 | 153.2 | 0 |
11/07/18 | 1308 | Science | 10.4 | 203 | 142.8 | 0 |
11/09/18 - 11/10/18 | 1309 | Science | 11.1 | 214.1 | 131.7 | 0 |
11/10/18 - 11/11/18 | 1310 | Science | 10.6 | 224.7 | 121.1 | 0 |
11/11/18 | 1311 | Science | 10.8 | 235.5 | 110.3 | 0 |
11/12/18 | 1312 | Science | 10.7 | 246.2 | 99.6 | 0 |
11/14/18 - 11/15/18 | 1313 | Science | 11.2 | 257.4 | 88.4 | 0 |
11/15/18 | 1314 | Science | 10.3 | 267.7 | 78.1 | 0 |
11/16/18 - 11/17/18 | 1315 | Science | 10.1 | 277.8 | 68 | 0 |
11/19/18 | 1316 | Transit | 3.4 | 281.2 | 64.6 | 0 |
11/21/18 | 1317 | Transit | 11.6 | 292.8 | 53 | 0 |
Flight Reports began being entered into this system as of 2012 flights. If there were flights flown under an earlier log number the flight reports are not available online.