NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mission: K-EGIG-Summit (priority: baseline; last flown: 2015 spring)

This mission was designed to accomplish a number of high-priority tasks. First, we refly the van den Broeke “K-Transect” in the Russell Glacier catchment, consisting of several sites where comprehensive glaciological measurements are collected annually. We also fly the EGIG traverse line, which is expected to be occupied as part of the CryoVex effort in spring 2014. We overfly the ICESat-1 track 412 Summit calibration site, and we fly two ICESat-2 groundtracks in the same area near Summit, with the expectation that these will become regular calibrations sites as well. For 2016, we add an overflight of a GreenTrACS core near IceSat track 0055. Finally we extend the coverage of the Jakobshavn basin upstream along ICESat-1 tracks, to capture continued inland progression of thinning there. 

Intermittent clouds over central Greenland offered a strong if not perfect forecast for this last baseline mission. A good webcam view of Summit and favorable evolution during the day gave us confidence to select it. We directly overflew all of the K-transect sites as planned, with what was described as our most successful direct overflight of K-transect yet. We flew several ICESat tracks upstream of Jakobshavn Isbræ and a short grid near Summit Station multiple times. A moth, possibly already deceased, intermittently obscured the DMS window. It was successfully extracted from the below the DMS instrument by its harnessed operator, Eric Fraim, but then a second such insect appeared that could not be extracted. The mission continued with mostly interrupted surface visibility and overall better visibility than expected. We flew by Swiss Camp at the end of the EGIG line, performed a ramp pass at 1000’ and straight-and-level tests for MCoRDS along the Kangerlussuaq fjord.

Attached images:

1. Map of today’s mission

2. Snow-filled supraglacial stream near Kangerlussuaq (Lauren Andrews / NASA)

3. Summit Station, central Greenland (Lauren Andrews / NASA)

4. Steep land-terminating cliffs, northeastern Greenland (Lauren Andrews / NASA)

5. Swiss Camp, occupied in the last few days by Koni Steffen’s group (Hara Madhav Talasila / KU)