NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

› View larger
A compilation of flight lines showing the paths of all flights flown during Operation IceBridge's Antarctic 2012 campaign. Credit: NASA/Michael Studinger The 2012 Antarctic campaign marked IceBridge's fourth year of flights over Antarctica since the mission began in 2009. IceBridge completed 16 high-priority survey flights over a five-week period from Oct. 12 to Nov. 8, 2012.

Using its suite of instruments ranging from ice-penetrating radar to measure ice thickness and map sub-glacial bedrock, to a gravimeter to measure the depth and shape of water beneath ice shelves, scientists added on to existing datasets and surveyed new areas of the Antarctic ice sheet. IceBridge also revisited the Pine Island Glacier crack, discovered in 2011, and noted it had grown significantly over the past year.

IceBridge achieved goals in educational outreach and science diplomacy, as well. On one flight IceBridge was joined by the U.S. Ambassador to Chile and his Secretary for Economic Affairs. On another, the mission was joined by U.S. Embassy personnel, two Chilean teachers and visitors from the U.S. Antarctic Program. In addition, IceBridge researchers on the DC-8 used a new online portal to answer questions from students and teachers in several U.S. states and Chile by text chat.

> More about the Antarctic 2012 IceBridge Field Campaign

› View larger
This map of Earth's northern hemisphere shows the completed flights for the Arctic 2012 IceBridge campaign. The P-3B aircraft flight lines are in orange for land ice missions and yellow for sea ice mission. The HU-25C Falcon aircraft flight lines are in blue. Credit: NASA/M. Studinger The IceBridge Arctic 2012 campaign was a record breaking success with the team completing 44 science flights including a survey of the Canadian Ice caps and a newly designed Northeast Grid mission to examine bedrock topography in northeast Greenland. Joining the workhorse P-3B aircraft in the field was a newly acquired NASA aircraft, the HU-25C Guardian Falcon on its first NASA science mission.

In addition to the annual field campaign tasks, IceBridge joined forces with Danish and German aircraft, for a coordinated effort called CryoVEx, designed to verify measurements made by the European Space Agency's (ESA) ice-monitoring satellite, CryoSat-2. IceBridge also hosted five educators, from the U.S., Greenland and Denmark, who spent several days embedded with the IceBridge team, their goal being to improve their understanding of polar science, which they intend to pass on to their students.

> More about the Arctic 2012 IceBridge Field Campaign

› View larger
A compilation of flight lines showing the paths of all flights flown during Operation IceBridge's Antarctic 2011 campaign. Credit: NASA/Michael Studinger IceBridge, utilizing NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory and a Gulfstream-V owned by the National Science Foundation, flew a record 24 science flights during their six-week Antarctic 2011 campaign. The highlight was the discovery of a large crack across the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf. Additionally, IceBridge charted the continued rapid acceleration and mass loss of Pine Island Glacier and made historic flights to rarely studied regions of East Antarctica, Slessor and Recovery glaciers, where ice-penetrating radar measured the topography of the bedrock underneath the ice sheet.

> More about the Antarctic 2011 IceBridge Field Campaign

› View larger
This map of Earth's northern hemisphere shows the completed flights for the Arctic 2011 IceBridge campaign. The P-3B aircraft flight lines are in yellow. The King Air B200 aircraft flight lines are in brown. Credit: NASA/M. Studinger The IceBridge mission visited the Arctic between March and May of 2011. Based out of Thule and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, this field campaign focused on re-surveying areas that are undergoing rapid change and embarking on new lines of investigation, such as surveys of Canadian ice caps. NASA's P-3B and King Air B200 (IceBridge newcomer) aircraft were used on this campaign.

> More about the Arctic 2011 IceBridge Field Campaign

› View larger
A compilation of flight lines shows the paths of all 10 flights flown during Operation IceBridge's Antarctic 2010 campaign. Credit: Michael Studinger Despite a mechanical malfunction requiring replacement parts to be flown in, unpredictable weather conditions, and a fuel shortage due to a refinery strike, the Antarctic October-November 2010 IceBridge campaign completed 10 highly successful science flights totaling almost 115 hours of flight time over Antarctica and its environs, including Thwaites Glacier and Pine Island Bay, and measured the ice thickness and surface elevations of the numerous tributaries feeding into the main Pine Island Glacier. New flight destinations included West Antarctica's Getz Ice Shelf and an arc-shaped flight path around the South Pole.

> More about the Antarctic 2010 IceBridge Field Campaign

› View larger
This map of Greenland shows the completed flights for the Arctic 2010 IceBridge campaign. Credit: NASA/Goddard The IceBridge mission visited the Arctic between March and May of 2010. Based out of Thule and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, this field campaign to monitor Greenland and Arctic sea ice focused on areas where glaciers and ice sheets have been undergoing rapid changes, including the Northwest Passage. NASA's DC-8 and P-3B aircraft were used on this campaign.

> More about the Arctic 2010 IceBridge Field Campaign

› View larger
This map of western Antarctic shows the completed flights for the Antarctic 2009 IceBridge campaign. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Michael Studinger In October/November of 2009, IceBridge flew over Earth's southern ice-covered regions to study changes to its sea ice, ice sheets, and glaciers. Based out of Punta Arenas, Chile, the IceBridge team used NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory to study western Antarctica's Amundsen Coast, Pine Island Glacier, and the Antarctic Peninsula, where data was collected from the Larsen Ice Shelf and nearby glaciers. Difficult-to-forecast Antarctic weather conditions played a significant role in scheduling flights.

> More about the Antarctic 2009 IceBridge Field Campaign