Flight Report: 11/05/19
 
OUTLOOK FOR TOMORROW: Clear conditions persist in East Antarctica near where we conducted our science mission today. So we have multiple options to choose from for tomorrow. A sea ice mission looks possible towards the end of the week, which we are closely monitoring.
 
Mission: Cook-Ninnis 02        
Priority: High
 
IceBridge was able to fly the high priority land ice mission Cook-Ninnis 02 today. This mission was chosen because clear conditions were finally present along the coast of the Cook and Ninnis glaciers, where previously clouds were prevalent. So today we took this opportunity to fly this high priority mission opposed to other high priority missions farther inland. ‘
 
Forecasts predicted clear skies and light winds for the mission, which were encountered upon arrival. Light to moderate katabatic flow was present over Wilkes Land. Again, forecasts and imagery were accurate. Forecasts thus far during the campaign have proven fairly stable and reliable in this area of Antarctica.
 
This mission is of importance because it includes and IS-2 track, as a grid pattern that tracks along the coast, and supplements another previous airborne survey ICECAP. This mission is one of four in the area.
 
During today’s flight all instruments performed well with 100% data collection. On the way back to Hobart, OIB was able to perform a deconvolution exercise for MCoRDS at 12,000 feet over a large polynya off Ninnis Glacier, straight and level. A ramp pass was also performed on arrival at Hobart at 1200 feet AGL.
 
Also to note, the gravimeter team compared data taken during the Rennick flight when the APU failed on the transit back to Hobart, to similar data collected back in 2013 on the P-3 and was a close match. Thus giving us confidence that no issues in data collection occurred on the Rennick mission conducted a few days ago.
 
ICESat-2 RGT latencies (+/- indicates OIB surveyed after/before ICESat-2):
0428 (+ 12 days)
 
Data volumes collected during today’s mission, which consisted of 3.3 hours of data collection:
ATM:  55 Gb
CAMBOT: 89 Gb
FLIR:  7 Gb
Narrow Swath ATM:  81 Gb green
Narrow Swath ATM:  75 Gb IR
VNIR: 31 Gb
SWIR:  40 Gb
Snow Radar: 727 Gb
MCoRDS: 352 Gb
Gravity: 4.5 Gb
 
This is my last flight report and mission of the IceBridge saga. I am sad to go, but happy of our progress thus far and everyone’s hard work and passion for getting this important science done. I wish everyone else in the campaign the best of luck! ‘Hooroo Mates!’ (Aussie for ‘goodbye friends’).