Scientists
and flight crew members with Operation IceBridge, NASA's airborne mission to
study Earth's changing polar ice have started another campaign over Antarctica.
Now in its fourth year, IceBridge's return to the Antarctic comes almost a year
after the discovery of a large rift in the continent's Pine Island Glacier.
The
flights scheduled until mid November take off from Punta Arenas (Photo:
Nasa.org)
The
first science flight of the campaign began October 12 when NASA's DC-8 research
aircraft left Punta Arenas, extreme south of Chile, for an 11-hour flight that
took it over the Thwaites Glacier in west Antarctica.
This
year, IceBridge will survey previously unmeasured areas of land and sea ice and
gather further data on rapidly changing areas like Pine Island Glacier. The
IceBridge Antarctic campaign will operate out of Punta Arenas through
mid-November.
Several
of IceBridge's planned flights focus on previously unmeasured ice streams
feeding into the Weddell Sea. These flights will gather data on what lies
beneath these ice streams, something vital for understanding how changing
conditions might affect the flow of ice into the ocean and sea-level rise.
NASA’s
Operation IceBridge images Earth's polar ice in unprecedented detail to better
understand processes that connect the polar regions with the global climate
system.
IceBridge
utilizes a highly specialized fleet of research aircraft and the most
sophisticated suite of innovative science instruments ever assembled to
characterize annual changes in thickness of sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets.
In
addition, IceBridge collects critical data used to predict the response of
earth’s polar ice to climate change and resulting sea-level rise. IceBridge
also helps bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's ICESat satellite
missions.
