Melting Ice..



The second stage of IceBridge's Arctic deployment is now in full swing, with surveys of glaciers on both the east and west coasts of Greenland. Surveys of these glaciers added another year of data to the growing continuous record of change in Greenland and afforded IceBridge team members and visitors with picturesque views of the Arctic landscape.

NASA's P-3B flew over the Greenland ice sheet on the morning of Apr. 5 to reach survey sites between the Helheim and Kangerdlugssuaq glaciers on the east coast. As with most rapidly changing areas in Greenland, these science targets were the subject of repeated missions, similar to surveys flown in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Instead of flying a back and forth grid pattern like some previous flights, researchers on the P-3B surveyed the centerlines of branches of the Helheim, Kangerdlugssuaq, Fenris, Midgard and Hutchinson glaciers on Greenland's east coast. Surveying the centerline of a glacier gives researchers valuable data on changes in ice elevation and the shape of bedrock beneath the ice.

In addition to collecting this vital data, flying at low altitude over glacier centerlines gives everyone aboard NASA's airborne laboratory a great view of mountains, ocean and ice. "The spectacular scenery in the area never gets boring," said Michael Studinger, IceBridge's project scientist.

The following day, Apr. 6, the IceBridge team returned to the Jakobshavn Glacier region on Greenland's west coast to extend and improve a measurement grid started by NASA's ICESat and fly centerlines of the Eqip Sermia, Kangilerngata Sermia, Sermeq Kajalleq and Store glaciers.
During both flights the IceBridge team was joined by guest science teachers. Three teachers, one each from the United States, Greenland and Denmark, are flying along on IceBridge surveys to get a close-up look at polar science field work. In addition, IceBridge researchers answered the questions of two teachers and nearly 40 students in California and New Hampshire during an online chat via the P-3B's satellite communications link.