2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Operation ICE Bridge
Science Focus:
HQ Sponsor:
PI:
Cryosphere
Albertson
Martin
Operation ICE Bridge 2009 was funded by the
NASA Cryosphere Program Manager, Thomas
Wagner and the NASA Airborne Science Program
Manager, Randal Albertson. The Operation ICE
Bridge Project Scientist was Seelye Martin of
the University of Washington. The OIB Project
Manager was Kent Shiffer from the NASA Ames
Earth Science Project Office.
The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation (ICE) Sat I
satellite is nearing the end of its lifespan and is
expected to be inoperable very soon. ICESat II is
not expected to launch until 2014 at the earliest.
With this in mind, the Airborne Science program
established a campaign to bridge the data gap with
NASA aircraft assets. This campaign was officially
named “Operation ICE Bridge” or (OIB).
Operation Ice Bridge is now well underway.
Incorporated into OIB are several NASA and
commercial entities that will provide data for both
the Arctic and Antarctic. In calendar year 2009 the
primary scientific focus for OIB were the Arctic and
Antarctic regions of sea and land ice.
Greenland and a long leg transit to/from Fairbanks,
Alaska, while underflying ICESat I.
In two separate measurement campaigns in May-
June and in August-September, the University of
Alaska Geophysical Institute’s Chris Larsen flew
a single engine Otter aircraft with a laser altimeter
to acquire elevation profiles and compute mass
balances of the remote Stikine Glacier and glaciers
surrounding Glacier Bay on the Alaskan peninsula
near Juneau. Weather was favorable and the mission
was completed on time. Dr. Larsen was able to
complete 52.4 of the 60 flight hours allocated for
these combined Alaska missions.
In Austral Spring, October 15 –November 23, 2009,
the NASA DC-8 completed an unprecedented
227.4 flight hours including 21 science flights in the
From March 30 – May 6, 2009 the NASA P-3 from
Wallops Flight Facility conducted the spring portion
of OIB out of Thule and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland
with great success. The P-3 aircraft and crew flew a
total of 20 science flights over 172 flight hours, the
most of any previous P-3 deployment.
Instrumentation on the P-3 included the Laser
Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS), Airborne
Topographic Mapper (ATM), Pathfinder Airborne
Radar Ice Sounder (PARIS), and the University of
Kansas Snow Radar. NASA P-3 flight lines included
sea and land ice with ICESat I under-flights. These
instruments provided observations of land ice,
sea ice and extended Arctic sea ice along coastal
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