Operation IceBridge: using instrumented aircraftto bridge the observational gapbetween ICESat and ICESat-2

New Suborbital Mission: Operation IceBridge

IceBridge will produce a robust, cross-calibrated a 17-year time series of ice sheet and sea ice elevation data together with ICESat, CryoSat-2, and ICESat-2

The 17-year time series will be the definitive resource for predictive models of sea ice and ice sheet behavior

In addition to laser altimetry, IceBridge is using the most comprehensive and sophisticated suite of instruments ever flown in polar research to yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves, and the sea ice

IceBridge is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown

successful collaboration of

several NASA centersrun out of Goddard

University Partners:University of Kansas (CReSIS)Columbia University (LDEO)

IceBridge exploits airborne platforms when making altimetry measurements to make other critical measurements to understanding change in polar ice sheets:

most comprehensive and sophisticated suite of instruments ever flown in polar regions

Instrument Operator Measurement Type

ATM NASA – WFF ice surface (1,500 ft AGL) laseraltimetersLVIS NASA – GSFC ice surface (35,000 ft AGL)

DMS NASA – ARC digital photography

MCoRDS KU CReSIS bedrock elevation radarsfor snow and ice

thickness

snow radar KU CReSIS snow thickness

Ku-band radar KU CReSIS ice surface elevation

accumulation radar KU CReSIS near-surface layers

gravimeter SGL/ LDEO water depth, geoid

onboard data NSERC aux. data: temperature, etc.

• largest external structureever flown on a P-3

• designed, built, and installedin only 3 months

Arctic (Mar-Apr) Antarctica (Oct-Nov)

P-3B: Greenland and

Arctic Ocean

DC-8:Antarctic Peninsula and

West Antarctica

2012 – 2015: start deploying Global Hawk over Antarctica

in addition to NASA campaigns: smaller, university-led campaignsin Alaska and East Antarctica with DHC-3 and DC-3s

two campaigns per year to monitor temporal and spatial changes

Total: 143 days of deployment 69 science missions581 flight hours 350,000 km (8.6 times around the Earth)

Greenland 2010

Antarctica 2009

Greenland 2009

Greenland 2010

Antarctica 2010

Jan

2009

Jan

2011

Jan

2010

Jul 2

009

Jul 2

010

P-3

DC-8

P-3

DC-8

plannedDC-8

Antarctica 2009 Greenland/Arctic Ocean 2010

flight lines follow ICESat tracks and provide detailed mapping of critical areas

Examples of cross calibration betweenIceBridge

andICESat and CryoSat-2

Greenland Summit: ICESat calibration site First CryoSat-2 underflight at 88°N Pole hole flight around 86°S Antarctica

IceBridge DC-8 flying above GPS sled both measuring surface elevation

Scientist measuring accumulation stacks along ICESat Track 412

DC-8 over flightApril 14, 2010

flown at both, 35,000 ft AGLand at 1,500 ft AGL

35000 ft AGL:

• LVIS (laser altimeter)• Digital photography

1500 ft AGL:

• ATM (laser altimeter)• Ku-band radar altimeter• snow radar• digital photography

IceBridge “pole hole” flight:

7 years of ICESatobservationsdifferenced with LVIS:

~500,000 data points

South Pole

86°S

Credit: LVIS Team

This data calibrates ICESat data over the ice sheet, improving and extending the ICESat time series

Uncertainties in ICESat determined dh/dt on the order of one-third to several times the GIS and AIS mass balance signal

LVIS pole hole flightICESat (Arctic Ocean)

ICESat range biasdetermined from

Credit: Michelle Hofton and Scott Luthcke

Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica

Example how IceBridge exploits airborne platforms to make critical measurements to understanding change in polar ice sheets

Pine Island Glacier is hard to reach and heavily crevassed

critical data sets needed for models cannot becollected from space or from ground measurements

= > can only be done with instrumented aircraft

ice surface velocityred = fast – blue = slow

Pine Island Glacier is considered to have the greatest propensity to cause rapid sea level rise due to the massive volumes of ice that could be released

rapid bottom melting near grounding line of up to 80 m/yr, potentially unstable situation

sub-ice cavity geometry is needed to modeling of ice shelf decay, considered the greatest unknown in modeling of future sea level rise.

Altimeter measurements along ICESat tracksand ATM flight lines

in addition use all IceBridge instruments for comprehensive mapping of the entire catchment area and its boundary conditions for ice sheet models

ATM, LVIS: ice surface elevation change

radar: ice thickness and snow accumulation

gravity: water depth beneath floating ice tongue

ICESat tracks

ATMflight tracks

2009 ATM – 2003 ICESat2009 ATM – 2003 ATM

Ice surface velocity: red = fast – blue = slow IceBridge ATM laser altimeter data

100 km

Right: the deep channel (blue) mapped by IceBridge is a new discovery.

The channel lies about 1 km below sea level, and provides a path for the above-freezing sea water to reach the glacier front.

Data is critical for ocean/ice sheet models to predict dynamic response of Pine Island Glacier to warming ocean waters.

water depth beneath floating glacier: blue = deep – red = shallow

Tweets:“International collaboration lead to numerous "firsts" during the April 20 sea ice flight”

“DC-8 ... the depth sounder instrument is telling us that we're flying over 1.2 km of ice right now.”

Social Networks

• Twitter• Twitpic• Blog• YouTube

IceBridge will produce a robust, cross-calibrated a 17-year time series of ice sheet and sea ice elevation data together with ICESat, CryoSat-2, and ICESat-2

The 17-year time series will be the definitive resource for predictive models of sea ice and ice sheet behavior

In addition to laser altimetry, IceBridge is using the most comprehensive and sophisticated suite of instruments ever flown in polar research to yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves, and the sea ice

IceBridge is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown

Summary

Multichannel coherent radar depth sounder for NASA Operation IceBridge Lei Shi, Christopher Allen, John Ledford, Fernando Rodriguez-Morales, William Blake, Ben Panzer, Stephen Prokopiack, Carlton Leuschen, Sivaprasad Gogineni

Operation IceBridge: Using instrumented aircraft to bridge the observational gap between ICESat and ICESat-2Michael Studinger, Lora Koenig, Seelye Martin, John Sonntag

Airborne high-altitude, 25m footprint, waveform LiDAR mapping of Greenland and Antarctica Michelle Hofton, Scott Luthcke, Bryan Blair, David Rabine

Airborne 3D basal DEM and ice thickness map of Pine Island Glacier William Blake, Lei Shi, Joshua Meisel, Christopher Allen, Prasad Gogineni

Operation IceBridge overview and results from aircraft laser altimetry over Greenland and AntarcticaWilliam Krabill, John Sonntag, Serdar Manizade, Earl Fredrick, James Yungel

3D Imaging of ice sheetsJohn Paden, Christopher Allen, Prasad Gogineni

Ultra-wideband radar measurements of snow thickness over sea iceBen Panzer, Carl Leuschen, Aqsa Patel, Thorsten Markus, Prasad Gogineni