2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Figure 20:
Flight route of G-III from Dryden Flight Research Facility to
Greenland and Iceland during IPY, including stops in North
Dakota and the Everglades.
designed and built as a proof-of-concept. Data were
collected over prairie potholes, wetlands, and the Red
and Missouri rivers in North Dakota and Minnesota
in support of early design for the Decadal Study
SWOT (Surface Water Ocean Topography) mission.
NASA502 remained at Grand Forks, ND, overnight
and proceeded to Thule, Greenland on May 2nd,
collecting data over pack ice en route. For the next
two weeks, Ka-Band data were collected over the
Jacobshaven Glacier and along a transect to High
Point (at 10,000 ft, the highest point in Greenland),
allowing observations of a variety of snow and ice
conditions. The flight on May 6 was a coordinated
flight with the Airborne Topographic Mapper
(ATM) sensor aboard the NASA P-3 as well as field
measurements at Swiss Camp and High Point. Early
results revealed that the Jacobshaven glacier calved
approximately 1.5km over a 6-day interval.
Flights with the second pod and L-Band UAVSAR
(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture
Radar) began on May 15 and continued for the
rest of the deployment. An inverter failure on that
flight caused a re-deployment to Bangor, Maine for
repairs, and the crew returned to Thule, with data en
route, on May 20th. The crew changed out on May
26. Except for a brief overnight at Kangerlussuaq
(Sondre Stromfjord) on June 4th to permit
acquisitions in Eastern Greenland, flights continued
from the “Top of the World” over the Greenland
glaciers and ice sheet until June 8, accomplishing all
objectives and options in Greenland.
Figure 21:
Ka-Band antenna in pod mounted on G-III aircraft for
flight to Greenland.
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