NASA’s IceBridge Embarks on Second Antarctic Season
26.10.2010 - Logistics, Water & Oceans, Ice & Snow, Antarctic
NASA’s Operation IceBridge is set to start its second year as scientists have returned to the Southern Hemisphere to monitor Antarctica's changing ice sheet, sea ice and glaciers. As in 2009, the survey flights will be made using a DC-8 equipped with seven instruments to try and re-survey areas that are undergoing rapid change. Taking off at Punta Arenas, the plane will fly over West Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula and coastal areas, with flights lasting up to 11 hours at a time.
Using the same instruments as the 2009 campaign, the scientists will map and identify ice surface changes. While the radar instruments will help provide a profile of ice characteristics and the shape of the bedrock supporting the ice, a gravity instrument will measure the shape of seawater-filled cavities at the edge of some major fast-moving glaciers.
Besides revisiting previously surveyed areas, this year’s IceBridge will have a look at the Pine Island Glacier and other parts of the Antarctic Peninsula. Among others, three high-priority flights will be measuring sea ice in an effort to determine why sea ice seems to be increasing in Antarctica while the sea ice is decreasing in the Arctic. This mission will allow scientists to gather long time series of data, and offer various opportunities for international collaborative work.
