MABEL: Flying on a high-altitude aircraft at the brink of space, the MABEL instrument is helping scientists to simulate measurements from NASA’s next ice-observing satellite, ICESat-2. April 8, 2011 Today, I caught this video on the NASAexplorer channel on YouTube: It covers Jake Bleacher’s work in understanding lava-sheet inflation (see his video, which covers this interesting […]
MABEL flies her last science flight for Spring 2011
MABEL: Flying on a high-altitude aircraft at the brink of space, the MABEL instrument is helping scientists to simulate measurements from NASA’s next ice-observing satellite, ICESat-2. April 7, 2011 MABEL flew her final science mission of 2011 (4/5) over White Sands Missile Range. The weather over this area was clear when we flew it, however, weather […]
MABEL Collects Snow Data!
MABEL: Flying on a high-altitude aircraft at the brink of space, the MABEL instrument is helping scientists to simulate measurements from NASA’s next ice-observing satellite, ICESat-2. April 5, 2011 We had another highly successful mission, this time to Colorado (4/1/2011). Specifically, we targeted a field that usually holds snow late in the season. Additionally, we targeted […]
Over the Sierras, Third Flight’s a Charm
MABEL: Flying on a high-altitude aircraft at the brink of space, the MABEL instrument is helping scientists to simulate measurements from NASA’s next ice-observing satellite, ICESat-2. April 4, 2011 Palmdale, Calif. – Well, it took three tries, but we finally collected excellent MABEL data over a forested area in the Sierras. While we were flying the first […]
Spring is Fireball Season!
What are the signs of spring? They are as familiar as a blooming daffodil, a songbird at dawn, a surprising shaft of warmth from the afternoon sun. And, oh yes, don’t forget the meteors. “Spring is fireball season,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Center. “For reasons we don’t fully understand, the rate of …
MABEL’s Second 2011 Flight
MABEL: Flying on a high-altitude aircraft at the brink of space, the MABEL instrument is helping scientists to simulate measurements from NASA’s next ice-observing satellite, ICESat-2. Palmdale, Calif. – MABEL had a very successful second flight on March 24! Taking off from NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., we flew a second flight over the […]
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center’s ER-2
MABEL flies aboard NASA’s ER-2, which is a research version of the Air Force’s U2 reconnaissance aircraft. MABEL specifically flies in the nose cone of the ER-2. The ER-2 is special because it flies at a very high altitude. MABEL’s data is collected at approximately 65,000 feet above sea level, putting the instrument above much […]
MABEL’s First 2011 Flight
March 25, 2011 This past Tuesday (3/22), MABEL had her first successful flight of 2011! After just a day of hooking MABEL up to the aircraft and checking out her systems (image below), we flew the instrument on what we consider to be a ‘shakedown’ mission. We flew a route local to the Dryden Flight Research […]
Hike to the Ice Cap
March 19, 2011 With three sea ice flights successfully behind us, and the airport being closed on the weekend, we had a day off from operations, and took advantage of the great activities that are coordinated by the Community Center here at Thule AFB. Today’s trip was a hike to the Ice Cap. About two […]
Heading Home from an Arctic Spring Break
March 18, 2011 Today we flew again and went right by the North Pole! The NASA P-3 went 2 degrees to the left of it, if you picture looking straight down on top of earth! The flights are usually about 7-8 hour missions so I woke up early and went to breakfast. After we got […]