NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

On April 7, Lora Koenig (right) observes first-look data available immediately from the Airborne Topographic Mapper. The instrument measures the surface elevation of ice, similar to measurements previously collected from space. Combining the records, scientists can look at the behavior of ice over long periods. Credit: NASA/Jefferson Beck

On April 12, Lora took a day off from flying for a hike to the calving front of southwest Greenland's Russell Glacier. IceBridge is using a radar instrument to achieve a detailed map of Russell Glacier's bedrock. Credit: NASA/Kathryn Hansen

On April 12, Lora took a day off from flying for a hike to the calving front of southwest Greenland's Russell Glacier. Massive pieces of debris from a recent calving event are free of snow, showing off the glacial ice's spectacular blue hue. Credit: NASA/Jefferson Beck

› Chat Transcript

A NASA team of Arctic explorers is in Greenland right now on an airborne science mission to keep a careful eye on changes in the ice landscape on land and sea. On Earth Day, April 22, NASA scientists including Lora Koenig in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, chatted with you about the Operation IceBridge mission.

Despite its name, Greenland is covered by a white ice sheet spanning an area equal to Alaska, Washington and Oregon combined. And it's losing that ice at a rate of more than 170 gigatons per year.

NASA has for years used satellites to monitor polar ice from space, but since the loss of the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite in 2009, researchers have relied on a different approach. During annual treks to the Arctic and Antarctic for Operation IceBridge, scientists operate a suite of instruments on aircraft to monitor the ice from the sky. The mission is now about halfway through its third Arctic campaign.

The airborne Arctic explorers have flown tens of thousands of miles over challenging terrain, including surveying from 1,500 feet glaciers coursing though jagged mountain valleys.

On Earth Day, NASA scientists involved with the mission were available online and answered your questions about the mission and Greenland's changing ice.

More About the Experts

Lora Koenig from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is IceBridge's deputy project scientist. Lora manages operations on the B-200 King Air, the campaign's second airborne platform that carries a high-altitude laser instrument used to map the ice sheet's elevation. She has also joined science flights on the P-3B, which carries a suite of instruments to study sea ice, the ice sheet's surface, the many layers of snow and ice, and the bedrock below.

Tom Wagner, NASA's cryosphere program manager, will be online from NASA Headquarters in Washington, to field questions about IceBridge and the state of the ice. Tom has appeared on TV news programs, adeptly describing the global importance of keeping watch over Arctic sea ice and land ice.

Related Links

› Operation: IceBridge Section
› Video: "Arctic Ice Gets a Check Up" (featuring Tom Wagner)
› Photos: IceBridge photos on Flickr
› IceBridge Blog


Chat Transcript

Jason (Moderator): Welcome to today's chat. We're getting ready to start answering your questions today starting at 3 p.m. EDT.

Jason (Moderator): Welcome to today's chat. It's Earth Day. We're going to be chatting to you live from Greenland and fron NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. We'll start answering your questions here in a few minutes.

Jason (Moderator): Welcome to today's chat. We're joined by Lora Koenig in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and Tom Wagner in Washington, D.C. chatting about the NASA team of Arctic explorers is in Greenland right now on an airborne science mission to keep a careful eye on changes in the ice landscape on land and sea. We're working on answering the first few questions. To ask your own, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

vince: hello

Lora: Hello from Greenland!

stargirl917: Do you enjoy being up in space?

Lora: I am not in space right now, I am in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Greenland has over 50,000 people that live here most on the West Coast.

Grecia_Sofia: Hi Everybody and Happy day Earth, What are the satellite that used to study glaciers?

Lora: There are many satellites used to study the ice sheets. Two that are currently in space are GRACE, which measures gravity, and the Aqua/Terra satellites that have visible imagery for watching the glaciers. There are also infrared satellites the measure temperatures. ICESat was in space until 2009 and monitoring the ice sheets by monitoring the surface elevation.

chusma133: am i ever going to actually see u

Lora: If you want to see me and the IceBridge team check out www.nasa.gov/icebridge where there are videos and pictures posted.

Isabel: What is the temperature in Greenland?

Lora: The temperature here is about 7 F. It was -7 Fwhen I woke up this morning.

Jason (Moderator): We're working to answer your great questions. Keep them coming! To submit your own question, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

HeatherMG: How does the sometimes harsh weather in Greenland affect your research?

Lora: The biggest affect this season is that one of the planes has had some troubles sitting in the cold temperatures all night. We have to warm the plane up and extra hour every morning.

don: What instruments are used on the B-200 King Air that let you record the elevation? and how does the mapping process work?

Lora: The B200 has the LVIS instrument. It maps an almost mile wide swath of ice surface elevation underneath the plane. It is a good tool for mapping large areas of the ice sheet.

Jason (Moderator): Learn more about the Spring 2011 IceBridge campaign at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/news/spr11/arctic_2011campaign.html

johnawad: At this rate(170 gigatons per year), what is expected to happen to Greenland in terms of ice?

Tom: That's what we're trying to answer. With IceBridge, we're tracking how ice is lost plus we're mapping the bed under the ice which is key to modeling future ice loss.

andy: which is the current situation of the glaciers??

Lora: Andy,

Lora: Andy,

guest: is greenland green?

Tom: Only a little bit! But as it's getting warmer, they're even growing broccoli in some places!

Jason (Moderator): Andy -- Lora's working on getting you an answer...sorry about that.

PatrickAldrin: Is there anything people can do to help stop the ice from melting this much?

Tom: One of things we're trying to do is understand the relationship between ice loss and warming. Our focus is the science, but we try to give policy makers and governments the best information we can so we can all make the best decisions.

Lora: Andy sorry about that we are flying many different glaciers in Greenland. Most are thinning but some are staying the same and some are even thickening. Over all in Greenland the glaciers are losing mass.

PatrickAldrin: How long is your mission going to last?

Tom: IceBridge is planned to run until we launch ICESat-2 in 2016.

Seelye: Do you ever see polar bears when you are studying the glaciers?

Lora: Most of the polar bears that we see are on the sea ice. Polar bears spend most of their times on the sea ice in the arctic.

debashis: How is the bed under the ice a key to modeling future ice loss?

Tom: The geometry of the bed sets how the ice flows. Think of how rivers might flow through mountains. There are hills and valleys, and we also have to think about friction.

Jason (Moderator): Do you have a question you've been waiting to ask? Go for it! To submit your own question, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

PatrickAldrin: Do you expect the rate to increase or decrease over the next few years? And by how much?

Tom: Hi Patrick, that's what we're trying to work out! But at present it looks like things are speeding up, which is why we are studying Greenland so intensely.

j_santascoy: What do you find the most exciting aspect of working on this project?

Lora: It is very exciting to see such a beautiful environment

debashis: What's the present condition of the ice landscape, not only in Greenland but the whole world?

Tom: It used to be that we were only losing ice from Southern Greenland, but now we're losing ice from Northern Greenland too. Check out the GRACE results on the NASA homepage.

johnawad: how many people are working on the project?

Lora: There are ~40 people in the field right now and over 200 scientist and NASA personnel are involved with IceBridge

Tom: Check out this link for more on how Greenland is losing more ice with time http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003600/a003687/index.html

VeronicaFromSpain: For how long are you going to stay there?

Lora: The P3 will be in Greenland until May 20th and the B200 until May 9th. We will be back again next year and each year until ICESat 2 is launched around 2016.

ohio: Few days later, I saw on CNN a report about an Ice breaker followed by Two ships crossing the North polar region.So my question does the situation going too worse than expected that allows tankers and Big ships to cross this area??

Tom: That's what it looks like. The sea ice is shrinking, not just in extent (map view), but also in thickness.

Jason (Moderator): We're working to answer your great questions. Keep them coming! To submit your own question, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

eliseandsophie: What animals do you see there, if any?

Lora: We saw a reindeer last night!

earthboeing: did you measure the atmospheric conditions out there?

Tom: The US has a base at summit station in Greenland. It's run by the National Science Foundation. They do a lot of measurements of air.

j_santascoy: Lora: How is this research relevant to the general public?

Tom: We're trying to understand how the earth is changing. It's critical to understanding how much sea level will rise--which is critical to coastal areas--and how weather patterns will change around the world.

johnawad: What type of data is collected during the flights, and how is it used in order to help reduce ice loss?

Lora: We are collecting many types of data including measurements of surface elevation (laser), ice sheet internal layers (radar) that tell us about accumulation history, visible pictures, gravity and magnetometer. All of these instruments together tell us about the state of the ice sheet and how it is changing.

guest: can you so sure of "global warming" with only short period of climate records (i think less than 100ys)?

Tom: There are records of the earths climate going back millions of years. They vary in how accurate they are, but, for example, fossils tell us there were forests in Antarctica when the earth hadCO2 contents similar to what we expect in the next 100 yrs

eliseandsophie: Is the time different?What time is it?

Lora: It is 5:25 here, two hours ahead of Washington DC

Jason (Moderator): We're joined by Lora Koenig in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and Tom Wagner in Washington, D.C. chatting about the NASA team of Arctic explorers who are in Greenland right now on an airborne science mission to keep a careful eye on changes in the ice landscape on land and sea. We're working on answering your questions. To ask your own, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we work on answering your questions.

gina: what type of weather patterns can we expect in the future if the sea level does rise?

Tom: Our best projections at this time say the wetter areas get wetter, the drier areas get drier.

Terri: Is the ice loss from Greenland noticeable from your perspective?

Lora: Yes, the satellites from the 1990 into the 2000's continue to show the Greenland is losing mass. This can be seen from the surface elevation lowering, the glaciers speeding up and the fronts of the glaciers retreating. Also you see a lot of melt water ponds, frozen now because it is the spring, on the surface of the ice sheet.

Grecia_Sofia: the increased the global mean sea level in recent years?

Tom: Sea level is currently rising about 3 mm per year, about half of that rise is from melting ice

mmaclaug: What are the ramifications if the ice in Greenland continues to melt?

Tom: If all of Greenland melted, it could raise sea level by over 20 feet. BUT that's not likely to happen for a very long time. However, sea level rises of just a few feet have major implications for the world. Many wetlands would be lost, coastal areas would suffer more during storm tides and similar events

Jason (Moderator): We're working on getting you answers to your questions. Keep the good questions coming! To submit your own question, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

johnawad: how fast are the glaciers moving?

Tom: Some glaciers move very slowly, some glaciers move so fast you can watch--and hear!--them go by! Check out Jakobshavn on the web. You can see video.

JOEPAH: Any truth to the rumor that while Greenland Ice mass is reducing, Ice mass in other parts of the planet are increasing?

Lora: No, what we know from our studies and satellites is that ice is being lost from Greenland, Antarctica and the mountain glaciers. There are always small areas that are gaining ice but as a whole the planet is losing ice.

brett: what is the other "half" that's causing the water levels to rise 3mm?

Tom: Warming of the ocean is causing it to expand.

mmaclaug: Is there anything we can do to reverse the ice loss?

Tom: The important thing is that in the long term, we might be able to slow it down with the right planning. It's not hopeless.

guest: how many hours of daytime are there in greenland now?

Lora: The sun comes up around 4:00 am and is setting about 11:00 pm. You can tell the days are getting longer.

tierra: how is the ozone layer

Tom: http://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Jason (Moderator): Do you have a question you've been waiting to ask? Go for it! To submit your own question, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

debashis: How do you survive there? Do you take food with you or buy/ manage from there?

Lora: I am in a Greenlandic town. People live here year round. There are 2 grocery stores and 4 restaurants so we have plenty of food. We are staying in dorm rooms.

venus-tr: do you think of molecule can be developed that will absorb the sun's rays ? is that possible ?

Tom: This is an important question. There are, but they are short term fixes that cause other problems, like acid rain.

mmaclaug: You mentioned that we could slow the ice melt process down with "the right planning." What would that entail?

Tom: I'd recommend that you look at the IPCC reports, and also check out climate.nasa.gov

JOEPAH: Why was NASA selected for this project? Do they have unique capabilities for this project?

Lora: Yes, NASA has planes that are specially adapted to handle all the science instruments we load on board the aircraft. There are special ports in the bottom of the planes for the instruments to peer out of. We do, however, have university partners as well that supply some of the instruments.

Abelardo: Que se espera obtener de esta ICEBRIDGE? y en que nos beneficiamos en la zona del Ecudor?

Tom: Este trabajo es muy importante por todo el mundo

johnawad: have you ever seen Auroras while working on the project?

Lora: Yes, There is a time lapse movie on the website so please check it out. The auroras are beautiful.

brnd: is there any microorganisms which can live in glaciers?

Tom: Yes, they live in pockets and between ice crystals

eliseandsophie: what is the color that you see the most there?

Lora: White and sometimes blue when the sun reflects off of the ice.

debashis: As far as I know summer reaches its peak around July-August. Ice should melt faster at that time. Isn't it a good idea to examine ice melting at that time?

Tom: It's a good point. We look at the ice all year round with satellites for just that reason. But it's very expensive to work with airplanes, so we're limited to how much we can do. We work at the start of melt season, to get a good "before' snapshot. Also, meltwater interferes with our instruments.

Daniela: can you describe nights and the noise around?

Lora: The nights are cold with lots of stars and sometimes auroras. Kangerlussuaq is kind of noisy during the day because it is an airport with planes coming and going.

Jason (Moderator): Do you have a question you've been waiting to ask? Go for it! To submit your own question, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

Nokeinthecloud: After this time researching over the ice, what are your conclusions?

Lora: Greenland is continuing to change and we need to monitor it closely.

JOEPAH: Compared to your original project plan objectives and expectatoins, has there been any data or experience that has suprised your team? Have you changed your plan as a result?

Tom: Good question! Some of the bed that we mapped has gone into ice sheet models, and it looks like small changes--little hills and things--exert a lot of control on how ice flows.

kaila88: How cold does Greenland get during the seasons?

Lora: The coldest temperature we have been awake for is -13 F.

Grecia_Sofia: How do you combine in situ measurements and satellite data?

Tom: We use satellite data to guide where we fly the airplanes. In some ways, the satellites give us big picture, then we do detailed work with airplanes.

Moab_Terry: Is Greenland showing signs of isostatic rebound as the overall glacial "overburden" is getting lighter

Tom: Yes, Greenland, Antarctica and even North America!

Jason (Moderator): We're joined by Lora Koenig in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and Tom Wagner in Washington, D.C. chatting about the NASA team of Arctic explorers who are in Greenland right now on an airborne science mission to keep a careful eye on changes in the ice landscape on land and sea. We're working on answering your questions. To ask your own, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we work on answering your questions.

JOEPAH: Hello. How did you reconcile increasing your carbon footprint with your new survey method which includes thousands of hours of airplane use vs your previous more efficient Satellite methods? Any idea of the increase in carbon footprint? Thank You!

Tom: We worry about that quite a bit. We try to define the most efficient surveys we can, and we're always looking for ways to do things with less impact.

JOEPAH: Is this an All American Team in Greenland or is it an intenational cooperative?

Lora: IceBridge has many international collaborators. We are collaborating with the European Space Agency to help calibrate the CryoSat 2 satellite. We have also flown over two international sea ice Camps. Just today a danish meterologist flew on board the aircraft.

Amy: How often do you get to go home?

Lora: I am here for 4 weeks. Most people are here for 4-6 weeks and a time before going home.

RobertPerkins: A lot of study has been done in Antartica about the additional loss of glacial coveage due to the melting effect from beneath glaciers, is this as great in Greenland? Also, what percentage of Greenland's ice shield compared to the earth's total glacial coverage?

Tom: In Greenland, we're losing ice by melting and flowing into the sea. In Antarctica, it's mostly flow into the sea.

Grecia_Sofia: Do you combine in situ measuments with data from satellites?

Tom: Yes, we also use in situ measurements to calibrate satellites.

JOEPAH: Greenland is a land mass, no? Are there any parts of the glaciers, ice flows etc that extend into the ocean that you are monitoring with submersibles.?

Lora: We are not using submersibles with IceBridge. We are using a Gravimeter that is used with the radars to model the water cavities under the glacier tongues.

eniiler: Are you detecting actual movement - slipping and sliding - of the glaciers, or just melting of ice? Can it be done remotely or need some folks on the ground. Thanks! Eric

Tom: We're measuring changes in the ice surface and thickness, and using radar to look through it.

Jason (Moderator): We're working to answer your great questions. Keep them coming! To submit your own question, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

amra: Maria Requena hello from Venezuela, I have a program called "painted green" and I want to be an active member of this mission to provide information through my radio show and social networks throughout the country.

Tom: Hi Maria,

yildirim: what is your opinion about changes in the Earth's magnetic field?

Tom: It's changing, but I am told by people that study it that it doesn't look like it's going to flip any time soon.

paulick: Have you viewed/used any of the images of Greenland from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission flown on STS-99 in 2000?

Lora: Yes, I have looked at images from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. It helps create a time series so we can monitor how Greenland is changing.

Milagros_Peru: hello Lora, Tom, Jason (Moderator) I'm from Peru

Tom: Greetings Peru! NASA may fly over some archaeological sites some day with IceBridge technology.

Bryan_G.: How long is your mission?

Lora: The IceBridge mission last for about 2.5 months in the Arctic and 2 months in the Antarctic each year until 2016.

johnawad: Jason (Moderator) can you please re-type the site where we could get more info about IceBridge? Thank you

Jason (Moderator): Learn more about IceBridge at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html

Amy: What does the CryoSat 2 satellite do?

Tom: CryoSat 2 studies the height of the ice. It's like ICESat, but uses radar instead of lasers. We use lasers and radar on IceBridge. We can do a lot of different things from airplanes, but we cna cover a lot more area by satellite!

Grecia_Sofia: What is the resolution elevation models that you use?

Tom: Decimeter. 10 centimeter.

canismajorisTR: Do you think global warming can be stopped?

Tom: There are some great resources out there that discuss this--check out the IPCC report and climate.nasa.gov

RobertPerkins: What criteria is being used for comparison, is previous satelite imagery old enough to give us a clear picture of the progressive melting of glacial ice? Can previous ice bore data give us the long term trend? I think our limited amount of data collection from what I consider miniscule, can hardly give us a true indication of the excalating global warming pattern comparable to previous global temperature fluctuations. Of course, I'm a complete novice and not associated with any scientific study, so this may sound elementary and biased.

Lora: With IceBridge we are trying to maintain a long term record of the Ice Sheets. One of the instruments we have onboard, the ATM, has flown in Greenland since 1993. We need long time series to fully understand and model the changes.

Jason (Moderator): Have you seen the IceBridge blog to follow the latest from the mission? Check it out: http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/newui/blog/viewpostlist.jsp?blogname=icebridge

Jason (Moderator): Do you have a question you've been waiting to ask? Go for it! To submit your own question, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

Tom: One thing people ask me is why airplanes--NASA has actually operates the most advanced fleet of research aircraft in the world! Some of them are ex-spy planes.

Amy: Lora, do you fly on missions daily?

Lora: For the first week on the P3 I was flying daily. Now with the B200 I am staying on the ground so we can load more fuel on the plane and fly longer.

gina: are there any direct changes in Greenland's environment that have stood out to you as a result from the glaciers melting?

Tom: Some of glaciers that calve icebergs the size of the US Capitol building!

JOEPAH: Do you measure the temperature of the ice at different depths, and has it told you anything useful yet.? Also do you take bore sample to measure content?

Lora: With IceBridge in Greenland we are not directly measuring the temperature of the ice. We rely on the infrared satellites for provide the ice surface temperatures

Jason (Moderator): We've got time for just a few more questions before the end of the chat at the top of the hour.

Jason (Moderator): Do you have a question you've been waiting to ask? Go for it! To submit your own question, please type it in the box at the bottom of the window and click the 'Ask' button on the right side of the box. Thanks for your patience as we answer your questions.

Gülşah_TR: Do you think global warming can be stopped?

Tom: It's not just a matter of stopping it, it's a matter of us understanding it and developing the best strategies we can for humanity.

Amy: So are you analzying data from the B200 on the ground while it is flying? Thanks so much!

Tom: We watch the data to make sure the instruments are working, but the detailed analysis takes some time. If you want to see it for yourself, check out the NSIDC link

Jessy_Matar: what do you think about a 16 year old girl dreaming about nasa, astronomy, phisics ...

Lora: Continue to dream. I dreamt of working for NASA and my dream came true. I love my job. It is new and exciting and challenging every day.

Jason (Moderator): Check out some of the latest data from IceBridge at: http://nsidc.org/data/icebridge/index.html

Mirliva: is it true that if you stay soo long in a greenland, some psychological problems begin?

Tom: A lot of that has been exaggerated. We are all really excited to go to remote places! We get to see places that are unique and the research is fascinating. Science is about discovering new things and the earth's poles are ripe with opportunity

Lora: Flying over Greenland is beautiful and exciting. Make sure you check out some of the pictures on the webpage. There is nothing like flying down huge glaciers.

JOEPAH: Is there any good news that you can share with regard to IceBridge project

Tom: Yes, our instruments are working great, and the data we are collecting is already working its way into more accurate models.

Jason (Moderator): See the latest images from IceBridge at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html

Bryan_G.: Hello! Im from ecuador and Im really interested in your mission, How many experiments have you done?

Lora: On this campaign we have flown about twice around the globe with 9 different instruments and we still have about a month to go.

eniiler: What's the future of NASA's environmental satellites that could do this kind of work from space?

Tom: We're looking to launch ICESat-2 in 2016. Plus the Europeans just launched CryoSat 2 last year. And we also use other satellites to study the ice. Check out the A-Train link.

Jason (Moderator): Learn more about the A-Train of Satellites at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/a-train/index.html

Seelye: When you are not flying missions in Greenland what do you do?

Lora: When I am not flying I look at all the data.

Grecia_Sofia: What is your opinion about mission Topex/Poseidon?

Tom: FASCINATING! It told us that sea level was really rising all over the world! And that the sea has terrain. I always thought it was flat!

Isabel: Can a hearing impaired person work on this project? has there been any?

Lora: Definitely! The more people studying ice the better.

debashis: Do you examine the change in biodiversity with the melting of ice? If yes what mentionable changes have you noticed?

Tom: Check out the Arctic Climate Impact assessment on the web

Jason (Moderator): Thanks Lora and Tom for the great answers to everyone's questions. We appreciate your taking time out of your day to sit down with us. Our chat is over! Thanks for participating. A transcript will be available within the next few business days.

Lora: Thanks everyone for joining in. Happy Earth Day!