{"id":56925,"date":"2014-10-17T13:48:47","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T20:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=56925"},"modified":"2014-10-17T16:51:10","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T23:51:10","slug":"nasas-dc-8-laboratory-begins-antarctic-icebridge-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2014\/10\/17\/nasas-dc-8-laboratory-begins-antarctic-icebridge-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s DC-8 laboratory begins Antarctic IceBridge mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NASA's<\/a>
NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory is shown in Punta Arenas, Chile, after its transit flight from NASA Armstrong’s facility in Palmdale, California. (NASA \/ Michael Studinger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA is carrying out its sixth consecutive year of Operation IceBridge research flights over Antarctica to study changes in the continent\u2019s ice sheet, glaciers and sea ice. This year\u2019s airborne campaign, which began with its first flight Thursday morning, will revisit a section of the Antarctic ice sheet that recently was found to be in irreversible decline.<\/p>\n

For the next several weeks, researchers will fly aboard NASA\u2019s DC-8 research aircraft out of Punta Arenas, Chile. This year also marks the return to western Antarctica following 2013\u2019s campaign based at the National Science Foundation\u2019s McMurdo Station.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are curious to see how much these glaciers have changed in two years,\u201d said Eric Rignot, IceBridge science team co-lead.<\/p>\n

\"NASA\u2019s<\/a>
NASA\u2019s DC-8 research aircraft, shown flying over an Antarctic sea ice shelf on a prior IceBridge mission, is flying scientists and instruments over Antarctica this fall to study changes in the continent\u2019s ice sheet, glaciers and sea ice. (NASA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

IceBridge will use a suite of instruments that includes a laser altimeter, radar instruments, cameras, and a gravimeter, which is an instrument that detects small changes in gravity. These small changes reveal how much mass these glaciers have lost. Repeated annual measurements of key glaciers maintain a long-term record of change in the Antarctic that goes back to NASA\u2019s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) that stopped collecting data in 2009.<\/p>\n

IceBridge researchers plan to measure previously unsurveyed regions of Antarctica this fall. One example is a plan to look at the upper portions of Smith Glacier in West Antarctica, which is thinning faster than any other glaciers in the region. The mission also plans to collect data in portions of the Antarctic Peninsula, such as the Larsen C, George VI and Wilkins ice shelves and the glaciers that drain into them. The Antarctic Peninsula has been warming faster than the rest of the continent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Antarctic Peninsula is changing fairly rapidly and we need to be there to capture that change,\u201d said Michael Studinger, IceBridge project scientist.<\/p>\n

The mission also will collect data on Antarctic sea ice, which recently reached a record high coverage. This contrasts with declining sea ice in the Arctic and is due do a variety of factors such as changing wind patterns. Antarctic sea ice coverage is slightly above average and the growth varies from one part of Antarctica to another. For example, ice cover in the Bellingshausen Sea has been decreasing while ice in the nearby Ross Sea is growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are very strong regional variations on how sea ice is changing,\u201d said Nathan Kurtz, a sea ice scientist at Goddard. These regional trends together yield a small increase, so studying each region will help scientists get a better grasp on the processes affecting sea ice there.<\/p>\n

In addition to extending ICESat\u2019s data record over land and sea ice, IceBridge will also help set the stage for ICESat-2 by measuring ice the satellite will fly over. One of IceBridge\u2019s highest priority surveys is a circular flight. The DC-8 will fly around the South Pole at 88 degrees south latitude. This latitude line is where all of ICESat-2\u2019s orbits will converge in the Southern Hemisphere. Measuring ice elevation at these locations will help researchers build a time series of data that spans more than a decade and provides a way to help verify ICESat-2\u2019s data.<\/p>\n

IceBridge\u2019s Antarctic field campaign will run through late November. The DC-8 research aircraft is based at NASA\u2019s Armstrong Flight Research Center\u2019s facility in Palmdale, California.<\/p>\n

For more about Operation IceBridge, visit: http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/icebridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA is carrying out its sixth consecutive year of Operation IceBridge research flights over Antarctica to study changes in the continent\u2019s ice sheet, glaciers and sea ice. This year\u2019s airborne campaign, which began with its first flight Thursday morning, will revisit a section of the Antarctic ice sheet that recently was found to be in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":56926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}