Mission: Moscow-Holmes Mopup

Priority: High

This mission consists of the leftovers from the high-priority Moscow 02 and Holmes-Frost 01/02 missions that could not be surveyed when those missions. Specifically, it includes the outboard bathymetry grid line of Holmes-Frost 02, the western bathymetry tie line of Holmes Frost 01, part of the inland fluxgate and a bathymetry tie line from Moscow 02.

Today’s forecast and imagery strongly favored this high-priority mission, as it was clear across almost exclusively the large portion of coastline that this mission covered due to moderately-strong katabatic flow over this portion of the central Wilkes Land coast today. We descended through a thin altostratus layer prior to the survey line, and we flew just beneath a scattered to broken layer on the eastern side of Porpoise Bay, but otherwise observed clear skies throughout the science lines. All instruments performed well, 100% successful data collection minus bad MCoRDS channel. We performed a deconvolution procedure for MCoRDS at 13,000 ft AGL over a polynya during climb-out, after we completed the survey. We performed a ramp pass at 2000 ft AGL on arrival at Hobart.

ICESat-2 RGT / latency (± indicates OIB surveyed after/before ICESat-2)

0841 / –3 days

0673 / +8 days

Attached images:

1. Map of today’s mission (John Sonntag / NASA)

2. The western end of Moscow University Ice Shelf (John Sonntag / NASA)

3. A small iceberg in Porpoise Bay.  The iceberg was locked in sea ice with a great deal of snow cover, and dramatically illuminated through a broken cloud layer (John Sonntag / NASA)

4. Icebergs in Porpoise Bay #1 (Renata Constantino / LDEO)

5. Icebergs in Porpoise Bay #2 (Renata Constantino / LDEO)