Mission: Mid-Weddell
Priority: High
Overnight IceBridge successfully completed the high priority sea ice mission Mid-Weddell. This was a momentous and historical mission for us because it required many pieces to fall into place.
1500 Ground crew at the airport to move the plane into position to fuel and service.
1700 Power on and access to the aircraft
1800 Preflight briefing
1830 Doors close
1900 Take off time for an 11 hour flight
The plan for tomorrow Friday, October 26, 2018
The DC8 crew will be doing some repair work on the DC8.
0800 - 1600 Access to the aircraft. Please Coordinate with the ground crew.
Plan for Saturday, October 27, 2018
There is a tentative plan for a night science mission. Take off will be at 1800. More details tomorrow.
Mission: Foundation Academy IS-2 B
Priority: High
IceBridge successfully completed the high priority land ice mission Foundation Academy IS-2 B today. As predicted, the outflow from the continent caused clear skies and no weather issues during our flight. Thus, we were able to have 100% data collection along the lines.
This OIB flight was designed to target the strong beam of each beam pair along ICESat-2 ground tracks that cross the channel of Academy and Support Force ice streams. This was also the first time this mission has been flown.
Mission: Long Line IS-2
Priority: High
The plan for the next few days is as follow:
Thursday October 25, 2018
0800 - 1600 Access to the aircraft
Friday October 26, 2018
0800 - 1600 Access to the aircraft
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Potential hard down day. We will confirm.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Potential science flight.
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.
Mission: Recovery IS-2
Priority: Medium
Poor weather conditions west of the Antarctic Peninsula, near the pole hole and in areas where remaining IceBridge baseline and high priority missions are located prohibited us from flying one of those today. Instead we headed back across the Weddell Sea to fly the medium land ice Recovery IS-2 mission in an area where multiple missions have been completed and where the weather has been favorable since our campaign began.
Mission: Stancomb Inshore
Priority: Medium
Today we had a very successful mission, even after a deterioration of weather forecasts from the previous evening throwing us a curveball and requiring us to pick an entirely new mission, one which we previously had not considered, and a slight airport runway issue this morning. Regardless of these events we were still able to take off on time.
Mission: North Peninsula IS-2
Priority: Baseline
The weather in the North Antarctic Peninsula was in our favor this morning, allowing for OIB to tackle the North Peninsula IS-2 baseline land ice mission. This area is often times cloud covered due to unique meteorological conditions, however a high pressure system changed winds in the region to blow in from the south instead of the west, causing clear skies perfect for data collection.
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