P-3 Orion 04/29/18
| From: | BGSF | To: | BGSF | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start: | 04/29/18 10:50 Z | Finish: | 04/29/18 19:07 Z | ||
| Flight Time: | 8.3 hours | ||||
| Log Number: | 18P008 | PI: | Nathan Kurtz | ||
| Funding Source: | Bruce Tagg - NASA - SMD - ESD Airborne Science Program | ||||
| Purpose of Flight: | Science | ||||
| Comments: | This flight covered the ICESat-2 South line. | ||||
| 18P008 | |
|---|---|
| Flight Hours Approved in SOFRS | 201.2 |
| Total Used | 190.4 |
| Total Remaining | 10.8 |
| 18P008 Flight Reports | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Flt # | Purpose of Flight | Duration | Running Total | Hours Remaining | Miles Flown |
| 03/13/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Airworthiness Test Flight | Other | 0.8 | 0.8 | 200.4 | |
| 03/14/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Project Test Flight - Laser | Other | 2.6 | 3.4 | 197.8 | |
| 03/15/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Project Test Flight - Radar | Other | 5.7 | 9.1 | 192.1 | |
| 03/18/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -delta ATF | Other | 0.8 | 9.9 | 191.3 | |
| 03/20/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Transit to Thule | Transit | 7.9 | 17.8 | 183.4 | |
| 03/22/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #1 | Science | 7.8 | 25.6 | 175.6 | |
| 04/03/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #2 | Science | 7.9 | 33.5 | 167.7 | |
| 04/04/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #3 | Science | 8.1 | 41.6 | 159.6 | |
| 04/05/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #4 | Science | 8 | 49.6 | 151.6 | |
| 04/06/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #5 | Science | 8.8 | 58.4 | 142.8 | |
| 04/07/18 - 04/08/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #6 | Science | 8.1 | 66.5 | 134.7 | |
| 04/08/18 - 04/09/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #7 | Science | 8.3 | 74.8 | 126.4 | |
| 04/14/18 - 04/15/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #8 | Science | 7.7 | 82.5 | 118.7 | |
| 04/16/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #9 | Science | 8.2 | 90.7 | 110.5 | |
| 04/18/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #10 | Science | 8 | 98.7 | 102.5 | |
| 04/19/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #11 | Science | 7.7 | 106.4 | 94.8 | |
| 04/20/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Transit to Kanger | Transit | 4.2 | 110.6 | 90.6 | |
| 04/21/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #12 | Science | 8.1 | 118.7 | 82.5 | |
| 04/22/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #13 | Science | 6.5 | 125.2 | 76 | |
| 04/23/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #14 | Science | 8.2 | 133.4 | 67.8 | |
| 04/25/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #15 | Science | 7.7 | 141.1 | 60.1 | |
| 04/26/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #16 | Science | 8.8 | 149.9 | 51.3 | |
| 04/27/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #17 | Science | 8 | 157.9 | 43.3 | |
| 04/29/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #18 | Science | 8.3 | 166.2 | 35 | |
| 04/30/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #19 | Science | 9.3 | 175.5 | 25.7 | |
| 05/01/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Science #20 | Science | 7.4 | 182.9 | 18.3 | |
| 05/03/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Return Transit Leg #1 | Transit | 6.4 | 189.3 | 11.9 | |
| 05/03/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Return Transit Leg #2 | Transit | 0.6 | 189.9 | 11.3 | |
| 05/03/18 | 2018 OIB Arctic -Return Transit Leg #3 | Transit | 0.5 | 190.4 | 10.8 | |
Flight Reports began being entered into this system as of 2012 flights. If there were flights flown under an earlier log number the flight reports are not available online.
OIB - P-3 Orion 04/29/18 Science Report
Mission: ICESat-2 South
Priority: High
This is a relatively new mission, designed along ICESat-2 ground tracks to fill the gap between the southeastern and southwestern suites of missions. We sample a total of six ICESat-2 orbits, mixing left, nadir, and right beam pair overflights. We also overfly a firn compaction study site at point Saddle.
Today IceBridge successfully completed the high priority ICESat-2 South mission, which surveys the southern interior of the Greenland ice sheet along future ICESat-2 tracks. There was no wind and high clouds (~10,000 ft) locally this morning at Kanger, however strong winds (~40 knots) in the southeastern glaciers and low clouds in the southwest and over Jakobshavn areas prevented us from completing any of those missions today. The radar team requested that, shortly after takeoff, we fly ~1500 ft above the flat snow surface in fjord for 5 min to collect calibration data for the snow radar, which we repeated upon return to Kangerlussuaq. Once completed, we flew the ICESat-2 tracks that constituted today’s mission. The majority of this flight is over the ice divide of the ice sheet, however the southernmost line crossed over some outlet glaciers briefly. These included glacier calving fronts, with more evidence of nascent surface melting, mélange, sea ice, ice-free ocean, some thin rotten sea ice, and a boat. Coming into this area there were a few low puffy cumulus clouds that were for the most part transparent, and high cirrus clouds. The remainder of the flight was uneventful, with clear skies, and we took advantage of the opportunity to also fly the K-transect, which is normally part of the baseline K-EGIG-Summit mission. All instruments worked well, and to our surprise we had 100% laser altimetry coverage, given that we had expected to lose a bit of some tracks in the northern end of the mission. We did a ramp pass at 1500 ft.
Attached images:
1. Map of today’s mission (John Sonntag / NASA)
2. Small puffy cumulus clouds in the foreground, with sea ice, open water and a fjord wall in the background. Cirrus clouds overhead. (Linette Boisvert / NASA)
3. Thin, rotten sea ice. (Linette Boisvert / NASA)
4. Melt ponds between crevasses. (Linette Boisvert / NASA)
5. Glacier calving front into the bright blue ocean, along with some icebergs and milky sea ice. (Linette Boisvert / NASA)
6. Floating icebergs alongside a boat. (Linette Boisvert / NASA)
