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Mission: Operation IceBridge 2012
The antenna housing of the Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS) instrument used during the 2012 Operation IceBridge mission over Antarctica projected underneath the rear fuselage of NASA’s DC-8 airborne science laboratory. The MCoRDS, operated by CReSIS, was a multichannel radar used to measure ice sheet thickness and map terrain below the ice. It operated over a large frequency range and had multiple receivers to help eliminate noise that can obscure weaker return signals. Its ability to map terrain beneath the ice was important for computer models of ice sheets. The DC-8 is maintained and based at NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center, Building 703, in Palmdale, CA.Fall 2011
Contributed photo