IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of the Greenland and Antarctic ice.
Data collected during IceBridge will help scientists bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) -- in orbit since 2003 -- and ICESat-2, planned for early 2016. ICESat stopped collecting science data in 2009, making IceBridge critical for ensuring a continuous series of observations.
IceBridge will use airborne instruments to map Arctic and Antarctic areas once a year. IceBridge flights are conducted in March-May over Greenland and in October-November over Antarctica. Other smaller airborne surveys around the world are also part of the IceBridge campaign.
Tags:
Additional Info
- Lead Nation: USA
- Project Website: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html
Latest from Copernical Team
- New fuel for nuclear power systems could enable missions to Mars and beyond
- With delay until 2026, Boeing Starliner next flight may not carry humans, NASA says
- Moon erosion by solar wind far weaker than previously believed
- Flash frozen silicon reveals patterns mirroring early universe dynamics
- Using soft X-rays to track magnetic reconnection may advance space weather forecasting
- XRISM mission maps sulfur distribution across Milky Way
- SpaceX launches satellites from California, Florida day after scrubs
- Seismic signatures reveal fragmentation patterns of fireball meteoroids
- New MachLab rocket test site launches UK into next phase of space engineering
- Diverse rocky planets found around nearby red dwarf including one in the habitable zone
