NASA taps NOAA Hurricane Hunters for ice study
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s P-3 Orion airplane carrying IceBridge’s scientists and instruments gets ready to take off for the Arctic campaign’s first research flight from Thule Air Base, Greenland.
NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion N43RF and crew are currently supporting NASA's Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice. The team completed their first Greenland research flight of 2016 on April 19, kicking off the project's eighth spring Arctic campaign. This year’s science flights over Arctic sea and land ice will continue until May 21. During its seven years of operations in the Arctic, IceBridge has gathered large volumes of data on changes in the elevation of the ice sheet and its internal structure. IceBridge’s readings of the thickness of sea ice and its snow cover have helped scientists improve forecasts for the summer melt season and have enhanced the understanding of variations in ice thickness distribution from year to year. (Source: NASA)
