NASA's IceBridge Launches 2017 Antarctic Flights, Supported in Part by OPP

October 30, 2017

Scientists with NASA's longest-running airborne mission to map polar ice, Operation IceBridge, completed a successful science flight on Oct. 29, inaugurating their 2017 survey of Antarctic sea and land ice.

For the first time in its nine years of operations in the southern hemisphere, IceBridge will launch two consecutive, dedicated sets of Antarctic flights from two continents—South America and Antarctica—with two different aircraft and instrument suites.

Nathan Kurtz, a sea ice researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is IceBridge's project scientist.

OPP, as manager of the U.S. Antarctic Program, will support the continental flights

The first part of the IceBridge campaign, which will continue through Nov. 26, is based in Ushuaia, Argentina.

Starting in late November, IceBridge will carry out a second set of research flights, this time based in Antarctica. This will be the second dedicated Antarctic-based field campaign in IceBridge's history. These flights are part of an ongoing collaboration with the National Science Foundation which operates three year-round U.S. research stations on the continent.

These flights will be aboard a Basler aircraft and launched from NSF's McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott South Pole stations. The plane will be equipped with a laser altimeter and a new radar sounder.

Read more in a NASA feature story.