2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

CASIE
Science Focus:
HQ Sponsors:
PI:
Cryosphere
Kaye, Albertson
Maslanik
The Characterization of Arctic Sea Ice
Experiment (CASIE), flown from Svalbard,
Norway on the SIERRA UAS in July of 2009,
was the aircraft campaign portion of the larger,
NASA-funded IPY project titled “Sea Ice
Roughness as an Indicator of Fundamental
Changes in the Arctic Ice Cover: Observations,
Monitoring, and Relationships to Environmental
Factors.” This 3-year research effort, which
combined satellite data analysis, modeling, and
aircraft observations, includes scientists, engineers
and students from the University of Colorado,
Brigham Young University, Fort Hays State
University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
working together with research aviation specialists
from NASA’s Ames Research Center.
The project is attempting to answer some of
the most basic questions regarding the future of
the Arctic’s sea ice cover. In particular, our work
will help us better understand one of the most
fundamental changes in sea ice cover in recent
years – the loss of the oldest and thickest types of
ice from within the Arctic Ocean. This change has
been rapid and extreme. For example, our analysis
of satellite data shows that the amount of older
ice in 2009 is just 12% of what it was in 1988, a
decline of 74%. The oldest ice types now cover
only 2% of the Arctic Ocean as compared to
20% during the 1980’s. Not only does this change
affect the total amount of ice in the Arctic, but
it also affect the ability of the ice cover to resist
increased warming. In turn, this loss of the old ice
types will influence activities such as shipping and
mineral exploration, and it is important for marine
mammals and fish that use the ice cover as safe
havens and platforms.
CASIE’s role in this project was to provide very
detailed information on ice conditions by using
a small unmanned aircraft (NASA’s SIERRA)
that can fly long distances at low altitudes – a
job that can be difficult and dangerous for large,
manned aircraft, especially in the harsh Arctic
environment. The primary payload consisted
of 2 LIDARS and a C-Band SAR for providing
information on ice surface roughness and
topography, thickness, reflectance, and age. For
this mission, the SIERRA team developed an icing
warning system, in consultation with NASA GRC
and NCAR, to provide the ground station with
temperature and humidity data in real time.
For more information, visit: http://espo.nasa.gov/
CASIE
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