NASA Begins New Season of Arctic Ice Science Flights

March 20, 2013

Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

George Hale
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-614-5853
george.r.hale@nasa.gov


RELEASE: 13-081

NASA BEGINS NEW SEASON OF ARCTIC ICE SCIENCE FLIGHTS

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Operation IceBridge scientists have begun another
season of research activity over Arctic ice sheets and sea ice with
the first of a series of science flights from Greenland completed on
Wednesday.

A specially equipped P-3B research aircraft from NASA's Wallops Flight
Facility in Wallops Island, Va., is operating out of airfields in
Thule and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and Fairbanks, Alaska. The
flights will carry out survey flights over land and sea ice in and
around Greenland and the Arctic Ocean through early May.

NASA began the Operation IceBridge airborne campaign in 2009 as a way
to continue the record of polar ice measurements made by NASA's Ice,
Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite's (ICESat) after the satellite
stopped gathering data. By flying campaigns in the Arctic and
Antarctic each year, IceBridge is maintaining a continuous record of
change until the launch of ICESat-2 in 2016.

This year's IceBridge campaign will continue closely monitoring Arctic
sea ice and key areas of the Greenland ice sheet, while expanding
coverage in Antarctica.

"Our long term plan, beginning with the Arctic 2013 campaign, is to
scale back the land ice portion of the campaign while maintaining the
same coverage of sea ice as in previous campaigns," said Michael
Studinger, IceBridge project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Dramatic changes to Arctic sea ice, such as the record-breaking
minimum levels reached in 2012, and the potential societal effects of
ice loss in the region are driving the demand for sea ice
measurements. The mission will survey areas of Arctic sea ice near
Greenland with flights out of the U.S. airbase in Thule. IceBridge
also will carry out a series of flights from Fairbanks to measure ice
in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas north of Alaska. Researchers will
gather critical data during their flights between Greenland and
Alaska.

In addition to sea ice, IceBridge will survey the Greenland Ice Sheet
in the interior of the country and in rapidly changing areas along
the coast, such as the Jakobshavn Glacier.

"We're starting to see how the whole ice sheet is changing," Studinger
said. "Thinning at the margins is now propagating to the interior."

IceBridge scientists will collaborate with other groups doing research
in the region, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions
Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., and the Naval Research
Laboratory (NRL) in Washington. The laboratories are working together
to collect snow depth measurements on Elson Lagoon near Barrow,
Alaska, to help NRL evaluate a snow radar they are using.

Joining the IceBridge team are three teachers who will spend time
working with the researchers to learn about polar science. High
school science teachers from Libertyville, Illinois; Aalborg,
Denmark; and Sisimiut, Greenland, will spend time aboard the P-3B
during IceBridge survey flights.

IceBridge is providing these teachers with a research experience they
can use to better teach science and inspire their students to study
scientific fields. The teachers' involvement is the result of a
partnership with the U.S. State Department, the governments of
Denmark and Greenland, and the National Science Foundation-funded
Polar Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating program.

For more about Operation IceBridge and to follow this year's campaign,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/icebridge

For more about PolarTREC and the IceBridge teacher research
experience, visit:


http://go.nasa.gov/13cycwM


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