ESA : Probing Greenland’s ice sheet for future satellites .- Sondar la capa de hielo de Groenlandia para futuros satélites

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/The_Living_Planet_Programme/Campaigns/Probing_Greenland_s_ice_sheet_for_future_satellites

A desolate place to work

 

16 November 2016

With a helicopter the sole feature on the vast expanse of ice and her only way back to warmth and safety, polar scientist Anna Hogg must have thought, “What on Earth am I doing out here?” as she set to taking ice samples.

Anna and fellow scientist Andrew Shepherd, from the University of Leeds in the UK, spent two days extracting long cylindrical ice cores and using instruments to probe the ice sheet as part of an international effort to develop new space technology to monitor our changing polar environment.

Since it was launched in 2010, ESA’s CryoSat has been delivering vital information about how the thickness of Earth’s ice is changing. To do this, the satellite carries a radar altimeter, and now scientists want to find out if an altimeter working at two wavelengths would provide even better information in the future.

 

Monitoring the radar

So, as well as work on the ice, the experiment included taking measurements from an aircraft carrying two radar altimeters: one working at ‘Ka-band’ radio wavelengths less than 1 cm (8 mm) long and the other at ‘Ku-band’ around 2.2 cm.

While Anna and Andrew braved the cold down on the ice sheet, scientists from the Technical University of Denmark and Metasensing operated the complex radar instruments on the plane, focusing their attention on the precious data being collected as they flew back and forth across the ice sheet.

Henriette Skourup, in charge of the airborne measurements, said, “CryoSat relies on a Ku-band radar altimeter to map how the height of the ice caps change over time. Because it has a shorter wavelength, Ka-band penetrates the snow less and therefore provides useful complementary information on ice-sheet topography.

“By comparing airborne and ground data, the campaign will provide valuable feedback on the benefits we expect from Ka-band measurements.”

 

: First Ka-band data

Malcolm Davidson, ESA campaign coordinator, added, “Before any new space technology can be built, a huge effort goes into prototyping the measurements.

“In this case, we need to understand how a two-wavelength radar altimeter could offer continuity and improve the current single-wavelength measurements provided by CryoSat.

“The results from the campaign should help us, together with European space industry, to design future space missions to monitor polar regions.

“Earth’s ice is extremely vulnerable, so it is important that we investigate different ways it could be measured in the future.”

After some well-deserved rest, the campaign team are now busy processing and analysing the data they collected in Greenland and will have the first results before the end of the year.

 

Karen field campaign

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ESA : Iceberg patrol gains faster updates from orbit .- Patrulla Iceberg obtiene actualizaciones más rápidas desde la órbita

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Iceberg_patrol_gains_faster_updates_from_orbit

Coast Guard aircraft

 

9 November 2016

The international iceberg patrol service set up after the sinking of the Titanic is now able to track drifting ice from orbit more swiftly through ESA-backed cloud computing.

The icebergs drifting in transatlantic shipping lines typically break off from the Greenland ice sheet before being carried into Baffin Bay. From there, they typically either become grounded or continue southwards. Most are gradually weathered away, but some can endure dangerously far south.

On 15 April 1912 the most infamous iceberg in history collided with the Titanic just south of the tail of Newfoundland’s Grand Banks. The loss of life was enormous, with more than 1500 passengers and crew perishing.

 

Bow of the RMS Titanic

The disaster prompted maritime nations to establish an iceberg patrol across the North Atlantic that continues to this day. Since 1913 the US Coast Guard has run the International Ice Patrol, and no vessel heeding the published iceberg limit has collided with an iceberg in that time.

Throughout the January to July ice season, aircraft make regular reconnaissance flights, adding to an increasing amount of radar imagery from Europe’s Sentinel-1A and -1B satellites.

The Patrol uses aerial and ship sightings to feed an iceberg database to publish daily warnings for mariners.

“Each flight lasts seven to nine hours to cover an expanse of water of 75 000 sq km or more,” explains David Arthurs of PolarView, running the Polar Thematic Platform for ESA.

 

Monitoring icebergs

“But satellites offer an additional wide view within the overall 1 300 000 sq km service area. Radar satellites are extremely good at detecting sea ice and icebergs, even in clouds or darkness.

“This task has just been made much quicker and easier through our new platform, which has all the major data assembly and processing on a single online platform. Its real value is in shrinking the gap between the satellites in orbit and the end users.

“Speed is very important: we aim to get these results into the hands of the Ice Patrol as swiftly as possible – within a handful of hours at most.”

 

Iceberg path prediction

“This cloud approach will provide a bridge to the Patrol’s future by improving our ability to monitor iceberg hazards from space and continue to protect the maritime community,” noted Michael Hicks, Chief Scientist of the International Ice Patrol.

The online platform allows the easy extraction of information from a collection of satellite data and computer models, including iceberg calving and trajectory models, historical, ocean current and wind data covering Baffin Bay, and Greenland ice sheet products from ESA’s Climate Change Initiative.

ESA’s six Thematic Exploitation Platforms allow knowledge to be extracted from large environmental datasets produced through Europe’s Copernicus programme and other Earth observation satellites.

 

Polar TEP

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VERSIÓN EN  ESPAÑOL :

Una patrulla de vigilancia de icebergs más rápida gracias a los satélites

Avión guardacostas

 

11 noviembre 2016

El servicio internacional de vigilancia de icebergs creado tras el hundimiento del Titanic ahora es capaz de monitorizar con mayor rapidez el hielo a la deriva gracias a la computación en la nube proporcionada por la ESA. 

Los icebergs que se cruzan en las rutas trasatlánticas normalmente se han desprendido de la capa de hielo de Groenlandia y son arrastrados hasta la Bahía de Baffin. Desde allí, normalmente encallan en tierra o siguen hacia el sur. La mayoría terminan por fundirse, pero algunos pueden continuar peligrosamente en su camino.

El 15 de abril de 1912, el iceberg más famoso de la historia chocó con el Titanic justo por debajo de los Grandes Bancos de Terranova. El coste humano fue enorme, ya que perecieron más de 1.500 personas, entre pasajeros y miembros de la tripulación. 

 

Proa del RMS Titanic

Este desastre llevó a las naciones marítimas a establecer una patrulla de vigilancia de icebergs en todo el Atlántico Norte, que aún permanece en activo. Desde 1913, la Guardia Costera de los Estados Unidos dirige la Patrulla Internacional del Hielo (IIP) y, hasta ahora, ningún buque que haya respetado los límites publicados por ella ha colisionado con icebergs.

Durante la temporada de hielo, que va de enero a julio, sus aviones de vigilancia realizan vuelos de reconocimiento regulares, cuyos datos se suman a la gran cantidad de imágenes de radar suministradas por los satélites europeos Sentinel-1A y Sentinel-1B.

La patrulla alimenta con los avistamientos realizados desde aviones y barcos una base de datos de icebergs que publica advertencias diarias para los marinos.

“Cada vuelo dura entre siete y nueve horas, y cubre unos 75.000 km² de agua o más”, explica David Arthurs de PolarView, que controla la Plataforma de Exploración Temática Polar para la ESA. 

 

Vigilancia de icebergs

“Sin embargo, los satélites aportan una visión adicional más amplia dentro de los 1.300.000 km² que abarca el servicio. Los satélites de radar resultan excelentes a la hora de detectar hielo marino e icebergs, incluso en condiciones de nubosidad u oscuridad”.

“Con la nueva plataforma, estas tareas de vigilancia ahora son mucho más rápidas y sencillas, ya que todos los datos principales se recopilan y procesan en una única plataforma online. Su valor real estriba en que acerca los datos de los satélites en órbita a los usuarios finales”.

“La velocidad aquí es fundamental: nuestro objetivo es poner en manos de la Patrulla del Hielo los resultados con la mayor rapidez posible, como muy tarde, en unas horas”. 

 

Predicción del recorrido de los icebergs

Michael Hicks, científico jefe de la Patrulla Internacional del Hielo, añade: “Este enfoque en la nube servirá de puente para el futuro de la patrulla, ya que mejorará nuestra capacidad de monitorizar los riesgos de icebergs desde el espacio, para seguir protegiendo a la comunidad marítima”.

La plataforma online permite extraer fácilmente información a partir de un conjunto de datos de satélites y modelos informáticos, incluyendo modelos de partos y trayectorias de icebergs; datos históricos, de corrientes oceánicas y de vientos en la Bahía de Baffin; y productos de datos sobre la capa de hielo de Groenlandia procedentes de la Iniciativa contra el Cambio Climático de la ESA.

Las seis Plataformas de Exploración Temática de la ESA ofrecen información procedente de grandes conjuntos de datos medioambientales, recopilados por la constelación del programa Copernicus y otros satélites de observación de la Tierra. 

 

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ESA : Sentinel-3A Earth colour data released.- Datos liberados del color de La Tierra, según el satélite Sentinel-3A....

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-3/Sentinel-3A_Earth_colour_data_released

Greenland changing ice

 

20 October 2016

Today, the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite has taken another step towards being fully ‘operational’ as the first data from its Ocean and Land Colour Instrument are made available to monitor the health of our planet.

Following its launch in February, the satellite and instruments have been thoroughly tested and fine-tuned – leading to this important milestone.

Carrying a suite of instruments, Sentinel-3A is arguably the most complex of all the Copernicus Sentinels.

It has been designed to measure Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor large-scale global dynamics and to provide critical near-realtime information for numerous ocean, land and weather applications.

The Sentinel-3 validation team, a group of expert users, has been receiving sample products since May. Their feedback is essential to both ESA and Eumetsat to ensure the data are of the highest quality, as is needed for the myriad of operational applications that the mission will serve.

At the ‘end of commissioning’ review in July, it was noted that a couple of points had to be addressed before the first data were officially released to the public.

Susanne Mecklenburg, ESA’s Sentinel-3 mission manager, said, “It is imperative that these first-level data are the best quality possible so we are being extremely careful. It is now very gratifying to see data from the satellite’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument being released to users worldwide.

 

Wide and detailed views

“Data from the other two instruments – the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer and Radar Altimeter – will be made available in November and December, respectively.”

Offering new eyes on Earth, the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument will monitor the global oceans, and inland waters, including phytoplankton, water quality, harmful algal blooms, sediment transport in coastal areas, El Niño and La Niña events, and climate change.

It will also support observations of vegetation and crop conditions, as well as provide estimates of atmospheric aerosol and clouds – all of which bring significant benefits to society through more informed decision-making.

While the operations of the Sentinel-3A satellite are carried out by Eumetsat, the mission is managed jointly by ESA and Eumetsat.

ESA is responsible for the land data products and Eumetsat for the marine products – all of which are made available for application through Copernicus services.

 

Mediterranean view

 

Hilary Wilson, Eumetsat’s Sentinel-3 project manager, said, “The release of Sentinel-3A’s first operational data is the culmination of a lot of hard work by ESA, Eumetsat and the expert user teams.

“It represents an important milestone for the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service and also for the wider marine monitoring community.

“Routine operations of the satellite have been proceeding smoothly since Eumetsat took over this responsibility in July and we are now focusing on bringing the remaining marine products to this community.”

VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL:

Primeros datos de color de la Tierra de Sentinel-3A

El hielo cambiante de Groelandia

 

21 octubre 2016

El satélite Sentinel-3A de Copernicus ha dado hoy un nuevo paso hacia su total operatividad al hacer públicos los primeros datos de su Instrumento para el Color de la Tierra y los Océanos (OLCI), que vigila la salud de nuestro planeta. 

Tras su lanzamiento en febrero, el satélite y sus instrumentos se han probado a fondo y se han ido perfeccionando hasta llegar a este importante hito.

Sentinel-3A transporta un conjunto de instrumentos que lo convierten en el más complejo de la flota Copernicus.

Ha sido diseñado para medir los océanos, la tierra, el hielo y la atmófera para monitorizar las dinámicas globales a gran escala y ofrecer información crítica en tiempo casi real para numerosas aplicaciones terrestres, marítimas y meteorológicas.

El equipo de validación de Sentinel-3, formado por usuarios expertos, lleva recibiendo muestras desde mayo. Su respuesta es esencial para que tanto la ESA como Eumetsat garanticen la máxima calidad de los datos, necesaria para la multitud de aplicaciones operacionales a las que la misión prestará servicio.

En julio, una vez terminada la revisión final de puesta en servicio, se detectaron un par de puntos que debían resolverse antes de hacer públicos los primeros datos de forma oficial.

Susanne Mecklenburg, responsable de la misión Sentinel-3, explica: “Es imprescindible que estos datos de primer nivel tengan la máxima calidad posible, por lo que estamos extremando las precauciones. Es muy gratificante ver cómo ahora los usuarios de todo el mundo pueden disfrutar de los datos del Instrumento para el Color de la Tierra y los Océanos del satélite”. 

 

Panorámica y vista detallada

“Los datos de los otros dos instrumentos —el Radiómetro para la Temperatura Superficial del Mar y la Tierra (SLSTR) y el Altímetro Radar de Apertura Sintética (SRAL)— se distribuirán en noviembre y diciembre, respectivamente”.
El Instrumento para el Color de la Tierra y los Océanos monitorizará los océanos mundiales y las aguas continentales, incluyendo el fitoplancton, la calidad del agua, las floraciones de algas nocivas, el transporte de sedimentos en áreas costeras, los fenómenos de El Niño y La Niña, y el cambio climático.
También dará apoyo a las observaciones del estado de la vegetación y las cosechas, y ofrecerá estimaciones de nubes y aerosoles atmosféricos: todo ello aportará beneficios significativos a la sociedad al permitir una toma de decisiones más informada.
Mientras que las operaciones del satélite Sentinel-3A corren a cargo de Eumetsat, la misión es gestionada conjuntamente por esta organización y la ESA.
Aunque la ESA es responsable de los productos de datos terrestres, y Eumetsat de los productos marinos, todos ellos están disponibles para su aplicación gracias a los servicios de Copernicus.
 

Vista del Mediterráneo

Hilary Wilson, responsable del proyecto Sentinel-3 de Eumetsat, explica: “Con la publicación de los primeros datos operacionales de Sentinel-3A culmina el duro trabajo de la ESA, Eumetsat y los equipos de usuarios expertos”.
“La publicación constituye un hito importante para el Servicio de Vigilancia de Entornos Marinos de Copernicus y para toda la comunidad de vigilancia marina”.
“Las operaciones rutinarias del satélite se han llevado a cabo sin contratiempos desde que Eumetsat se hizo cargo de él en julio; nuestro objetivo ahora es poner a disposición de la comunidad el resto de productos marinos”.

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Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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NASA : NASA's IceBridge Observes Effects of Summer Melt on Greenland Ice Sheet .- IceBridge de la NASA Observa Efectos de verano que derriten hielo de Groenlandia

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasas-icebridge-observes-effects-of-summer-melt-on-greenland-ice-sheet

NASA's IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, flew over the Helheim/Kangerdlugssuaq region of Greenland on Sept. 11, 2016. This photograph from the flight captures Greenland's Steenstrup Glacier, with the midmorning sun glinting off of the Denmark Strait in the background. IceBridge completed the final flight of the summer campaign to observe the impact of the summer melt season on the ice sheet on Sept. 16. 

The IceBridge flights, which began on Aug. 27, are mostly repeats of lines that the team flew in early May, so that scientists can observe changes in ice elevation between the spring and late summer. For this short, end-of-summer campaign, the IceBridge scientists flew aboard an HU-25A Guardian aircraft from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Image Credit: NASA/John Sonntag

Last Updated: Sept. 16, 2016

Editor: Sarah Loff

Tags:  Earth, Ice, IceBridge, Image of the Day,

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NASA : Fjord and Glacier in East-Central Greenland.- Fiordo y glaciar en el centro-oriental de Groenlandia

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/fjord-and-glacier-in-east-central-greenland

On May 19, 2016, NASA's IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, crossed Greenland to fly central glacier flowlines in the east-central region of the country. This photo captures the fjord of  Violin Glacier with Nord Glacier at the upper left corner.

This year marks IceBridge's eighth spring campaign of science flights over Arctic sea and land. During the seven previous 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. Measurements from IceBridge have revealed a 460-mile-long (740 kilometers) canyon hiding under a mile of ice and mapped the extent of a vast liquid water aquifer beneath the snow in southern Greenland. 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.

Image Credit: NASA/Maria José Viñas

Last Updated: May 24, 2016

Editor: Sarah Loff

Tags:  Earth, Ice, IceBridge, Image of the Day,

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NASA : NASA's IceBridge Flies Over the Front of a Greenland Glacier.- IceBridge de la NASA sobrevuela la parte frontal de un glaciar de Groenlandia

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., Operación IceBridge, reconocimiento aéreo de la NASA de los hielos polares, ha regresado de la misión Umanaq B a lo largo de la costa occidental de Groenlandia. Esta visión de arriba hacia abajo de un avión de NOAA P-3 muestra la parte frontal del parto de Sermeq Kujatdleq glaciar. de la aeronave # 2 inferior góndola del motor y carenado izquierdo del tren de aterrizaje principal está en el primer plano en la parte superior.

More information............
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasas-icebridge-flies-over-the-front-of-a-greenland-glacier

Operation IceBridge, NASA's airborne survey of polar ice, has returned from the Umanaq B mission along Greenland's western coast. This top-down view from a NOAA P-3 aircraft shows the calving front of Sermeq Kujatdleq glacier. The aircraft's #2 lower engine nacelle and left main landing gear fairing is in the foreground at top.

 

This year marks IceBridge's eighth spring campaign of science flights over Arctic sea and land. During the seven previous 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. Measurements from IceBridge have revealed a 460-mile-long (740 kilometers) canyon hiding under a mile of ice and mapped the extent of a vast liquid water aquifer beneath the snow in southern Greenland. 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.

Image Credit: NASA/John Sonntag

Last Updated: May 13, 2016

Editor: Sarah Loff

Tags:  Earth, Ice, IceBridge, Image of the Day,

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NASA : Greenland's Ice Sheet From 40,000 Feet .- Capa de hielo de Groenlandia de 40.000 pies

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG.,  The Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) field : El equipo de campaña de campo está volando la aeronave G-III de la NASA en cerca de 40.000 pies. En un día claro, esta altitud también proporciona una perspectiva impresionante de uno de los dos grandes capas de hielo del mundo (la otra es la Antártida). El vuelo sábado por la 26 de marzo sobre la costa noreste era uno de esos días claros.
El equipo de OMG es ahora sólo unos pocos vuelos de distancia de la cartografía de las alturas de los glaciares alrededor de toda la costa de Groenlandia. Estas medidas formarán la base de este primero de su clase experimento, aclarar la imagen de cómo los glaciares de Groenlandia están respondiendo a un momento en que muchas señales apuntan a que la aceleración del cambio

More information.............
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/greenlands-ice-sheet-from-40000-feet

The Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) field campaign team is flying NASA’s G-III aircraft at about 40,000 feet. On a clear day, this altitude also provides a stunning perspective of one of the world’s two great ice sheets (the other is Antarctica). The flight Saturday, March 26, over the northeast coastline was one of those clear days.

The OMG team is now just a few flights away from mapping glacier heights around the entire coast of Greenland. These measurements will form the baseline of this first-of-its-kind experiment, clarifying the picture of how Greenland’s glaciers are responding at a time when many signs point to accelerating change.

OMG will pave the way for improved estimates of sea level rise by investigating the extent to which the oceans are melting Greenland’s ice. OMG will observe changing water temperatures and glaciers that reach the ocean around all of Greenland from 2015 to 2020.

Image Credit: NASA

Last Updated: March 29, 2016

Editor: Sarah Loff

Tags:  Earth, Ice, Image of the Day,

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NASA : Operation IceBridge Debuts Its Seventh Arctic Campaign .- Operación IceBridge estrena su séptima campaña al Ártico

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido información de la Agencia Espacial NASA en sus investigaciones del Ártico, que lleva a cabo con su nave: NASA's Operation IceBridge, cuyo avión NASA's C-130 aircraft: Ha desarrollado la  Operación IceBridge de la NASA, un estudio aéreo de los hielos polares, completó con éxito su primer vuelo de investigación de Groenlandia  19 de marzo de 2015,  lanzando así su séptima campaña del Ártico. Vuelos de ciencias de este año más de marino en el Ártico y el hielo terrestre continuarán hasta el 22 de mayo

NASA's Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, successfully completed its first Greenland research flight of 2015 on March 19, thus launching its seventh Arctic campaign. This year’s science flights over Arctic sea and land ice will continue until May 22.

 

NASA's C-130 aircraft getting readied for pressurization tests on March16, 2015 at Wallops Flight Facility, during preparation for the Arctic 2015 Operation IceBridge field campaign. The mission¹s usual research aircraft in the Arctic, a P-3, is currently getting new wings.

Image Credit: 

NASA/Jefferson Beck

The mission of Operation IceBridge is to collect data on changing polar land and sea ice and maintain continuity of measurements between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) missions. The original ICESat mission ended in 2009, and its successor, ICESat-2, is scheduled for launch in 2017. Operation IceBridge, which began in in 2009, is currently funded until 2019. The planned two-year overlap with ICESat-2 will help scientists validate the satellite’s measurements.

The extensive data IceBridge has gathered over the Greenland ice sheet during its six years of operations have provided an improved picture of the surface, the bed and the internal structures of Greenland’s ice sheet and allowed scientists to create more accurate models of glacier contribution to sea level rise. As for sea ice, IceBridge’s measurements of the thickness of sea ice and its snow cover have assisted in improving forecasts for summertime melt, enhanced the understanding of variations in ice thickness distribution from year to year, and updated the climatology of the snow depth over sea ice.

The first part of the Arctic campaign, based in the Thule Air Base in northern Greenland and including a short deployment to Fairbanks, Alaska, will focus on the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland and in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas north of Alaska.

“As far as the sea ice flight lines go in the Arctic this year, the new thing is that we’re not changing things this year,” said Jackie Richter-Menge, IceBridge science team co-lead and sea ice researcher with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H. “We’ve achieved a pattern of survey flights that is doing its job: it provides good insight into what the thickness distribution of the Arctic cover looks like in the Western Arctic, late in the winter season. This coverage is good both for modelers that are looking to do a prediction of the seasonal extent of the ice cover through the following summer and it also pays a nice complement to the satellite coverage that we’re getting from ESA’s [European Space Agency] CryoSat-2 satellite.”

This year, one of IceBridge’s radar instruments, the Multi-Channel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS), which is operated by the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, will try for the first time to take direct measurements of sea ice thickness. Thickness is a key indicator of Arctic sea ice’s likelihood to survive the summer melt season, but remote measurements of this characteristic are largely indirect.

“It would really be a wonderful thing to get direct measurements of sea ice thickness because what we have now is an inferred measurement based on how much sea ice is floating above open water”, Richter-Menge said. “Direct measurements would increase the level of certainty in the data.”

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NASA’s Operation IceBridge is back in the field, with a twist. Instead of using the P-3 or DC-8 aircraft from previous campaigns, they’ve outfitted a C-130 cargo plane for the trip. Science flights begin this week as the mission studies Arctic sea ice, ice caps, glaciers, and the Greenland Ice Sheet

Image Credit: 

NASA/Goddard

Feature Link: 

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The second part of the Operation IceBridge’s 2015 Arctic campaign will be based in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and it will focus on surveying ice surface elevation and thickness at several rapidly changing points of the Greenland ice sheet. Afterward, the team will return to Thule for the last phase of the field campaign.

 

This year, four areas have been added to the list of Operation IceBridge’s high priority missions. Among these are the Zachariae Isstrom glacier in northeast Greenland and its neighbor to the north, the 79 N or Nioghalvfjerdsbrae glacier. Both of these rivers of ice have rapidly increased the rates in which they drain land ice to the ocean in the past years.

“That part of Greenland is changing very rapidly and corresponds to a basin below sea level pretty far inland,” said Eric Rignot, IceBridge science team co-lead and glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “It’s a sector that we’re paying close attention to because it has the potential to change rapidly and it could have a significant implication for sea level rise in the coming decades.”

 

“As we do every year, we are sampling the four corners of Greenland and the interior regions to complete a rather extensive survey of the ice sheet,” Rignot said. “Recent results have shown that this type of survey is good enough to keep track of the total mass loss of the ice sheet from year to year, and also to get details on glaciers that are key players in driving the mass loss to higher values every year.”

Operation IceBridge is using a different research aircraft this year, an adapted C-130 Hercules former military plane. The mission’s usual ride in the Arctic, a P-3, is getting new wings. Despite both planes having similar sizes and capabilities, mounting IceBridge’s array of lasers and radars on an unfamiliar fuselage doesn’t come without challenges.

“Any time we install our very extensive suite of sensors, they have to be integrated in the aircraft, which means mechanically mounted in good, stiff mounts, and the radar antennas have to be embedded within the fuselage so that they function adequately without requiring time-consuming aerodynamic modifications to the aircraft,” said John Sonntag, Operation IceBridge’s Field Team Lead. “It takes a lot of time and mechanical work to get the sensors mounted on the aircraft and to get the electrical interfaces with the crew and the cockpit”.

As in previous years, Operation IceBridge will be collaborating with several international research initiatives. In Barrow, Alaska, the C-130 will overfly a sea ice experiment by the Naval Research Laboratory. In a remote outpost in the northeastern Greenland coast, IceBridge will take measurements overlapping those taken from the ground by researchers from the University of Manitoba, Canada. And, weather permitting, NASA’s airborne polar laboratory will fly over a drifting sea ice station in the Fram Strait, a passage between Greenland and Svalbard that is the primary region of sea ice export from the Arctic.

“The purpose of our cooperations with other research groups is to understand our own instruments better by comparison to the measurements they’re collecting on the ground, primarily snow depth and sea ice thickness,” Sonntag said. “ We use their detailed measurements collected on the ground to better understand the geographically much wider, but in some cases less detailed measurements we take from the air.”

 

The IceBridge project science office is based at Goddard. The C-130 research aircraft is based at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. For more about Operation IceBridge and to follow this year's campaign, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/icebridge

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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NASA : Greenland's Leidy Glacier

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido información de la Agencia del Espacio NASA, sobre la localización del Glaciar Leidy, en Groelandia.

NASA, nos dice : "Ubicado en la esquina noroeste de Groenlandia, el glaciar Leidy se alimenta por el hielo del Glaciar Academia (aguas arriba y aguas continentales). Como Leidy acerca al mar, se desvía alrededor de la punta de una isla que separa el fiordo Olriks al sur y Academia Cove hacia el norte. El patrón resultante se entrecruzan es simplemente el resultado de hielo que fluye a lo largo del camino de la menor resistencia...."

NASA, agrega :" Esta visión de la región de la foto de arriba fue adquirido 07 de agosto 2012, por el: the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER)  del satélite Terra de la NASA. En abril de 2012, la característica llamó la atención de un piloto de la NASA, que tomó esta foto desde la cabina de un avión de alto vuelo ER-2 durante un vuelo de la investigación sobre la capa de hielo de Groenlandia...."

Greenland's Leidy Glacier

Located in the northwest corner of Greenland, Leidy Glacier is fed by ice from the Academy Glacier (upstream and inland). As Leidy approaches the sea, it is diverted around the tip of an island that separates the Olriks Fjord to the south and Academy Cove to the north. The resulting crisscross pattern is simply the result of ice flowing along the path of least resistance.

This view of the region pictured above was acquired August 7, 2012, by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite. In April 2012, the feature caught the attention of a NASA pilot, who snapped this picture from the cockpit of a high-flying ER-2 aircraft during a research flight over the Greenland ice cap.

More information.

Image Credit: NASA/Terra

NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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NASA : Operation IceBridge Turns Five

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., la agencia espacial NASA, nos informa sobre sus investigaciones con su proyecto en la Antártica : NASA’s Operation IceBridge, ....En mayo de 2014, dos nuevos estudios concluyeron que una sección de la capa de hielo de la Antártida occidental con base en tierra había llegado a un punto de un colapso inevitable. Mientras tanto, nuevas observaciones desde septiembre 2014 mostraron hielo marino alrededor de la Antártida había alcanzado su máxima extensión desde finales del decenio de 1970........

Para comprender mejor estas diferencias dinámicos y dramáticos en la tierra y el mar de hielo de la región, los investigadores están viajando hacia el sur hasta la Antártida este mes por sexta campaña de la Operación IceBridge de la NASA. La campaña aérea, que también vuela cada año sobre Groenlandia, hace que las encuestas anuales del hielo con aviones de investigación instrumentado....

Instrumentos van de los láseres que se asignan la elevación de la superficie del hielo, los radares que "ver" debajo de él, y hacia abajo en busca de cámaras para proporcionar una perspectiva de color natural. El (DMS) de la cámara Sistema de cartografía digital adquirió la foto de arriba durante el primer vuelo científico de la misión el 16 de octubre de 2009 En el momento de la imagen, el avión DC-8 estaba volando a una altitud de 515 metros (1.700 pies) sobre pesadamente primer año compactada hielo marino a lo largo del borde del Mar de Amundsen........................

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Operation IceBridge Turns Five

In May 2014, two new studies concluded that a section of the land-based West Antarctic ice sheet had reached a point of inevitable collapse. Meanwhile, fresh observations from September 2014 showed sea ice around Antarctica had reached its greatest extent since the late 1970s.

To better understand such dynamic and dramatic differences in the region's land and sea ice, researchers are travelling south to Antarctica this month for the sixth campaign of NASA’s Operation IceBridge. The airborne campaign, which also flies each year over Greenland, makes annual surveys of the ice with instrumented research aircraft.

Instruments range from lasers that map the elevation of the ice surface, radars that "see" below it, and downward looking cameras to provide a natural-color perspective. The Digital Mapping System (DMS) camera acquired the above photo during the mission’s first science flight on October 16, 2009. At the time of the image, the DC-8 aircraft was flying at an altitude of 515 meters (1,700 feet) over heavily compacted first-year sea ice along the edge of the Amundsen Sea.

Since that first flight, much has been gleaned from IceBridge data. For example, images from an IceBridge flight in October 2011 revealed a massive crack running about 29 kilometers (18 miles) across the floating tongue of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier. The crack ultimately led to a 725-square-kilometer (280-square-mile) iceberg.

In 2012, IceBridge data was a key part of a new map of Antarctica called Bedmap2. By combining surface elevation, ice thickness, and bedrock topography, Bedmap2 gives a clearer picture of Antarctica from the ice surface down to the land surface. Discoveries have been made in Greenland, too, including the identification of a 740-kilometer-long (460-mile-long) mega canyon below the ice sheet.

Repeated measurements of land and sea ice from aircraft extend the record of observations once made by NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite, or ICESat, which stopped functioning in 2009. In addition to extending the ICESat record, IceBridge also sets the stage for ICESat-2, which is scheduled for launch in 2017.

> NASA's Earth Observatory: Operation IceBridge Turns Five

Image Credit: IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery courtesy of the Digital Mapping System (DMS) team/NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center
Caption: Kathryn Hansen

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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NASA : Hidden Greenland Canyons Mean More Sea Level Rise

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New maps of the bedrock beneath Greenland’s ice sheet (right) have found long, deep canyons that are likely to cause ocean-feeding glaciers (left) to retreat faster and farther inland than previously thought.

Image Credit: NASA

 

Scientists at NASA and the University of California, Irvine (UCI), have found that canyons under Greenland's ocean-feeding glaciers are deeper and longer than previously thought, increasing the amount of Greenland's estimated contribution to future sea level rise.

"The glaciers of Greenland are likely to retreat faster and farther inland than anticipated, and for much longer, according to this very different topography we have discovered,” said Mathieu Morlighem, a UCI associate project scientist who is lead author of the new research paper. The results were published Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Ice loss from Greenland has accelerated during the last few decades. However, older ice sheet models predicted the speedup would be temporary because the glaciers would soon melt back onto higher ground and stabilize. The models projected that Greenland's contribution to global sea level rise would therefore be limited.

Morlighem's new topography shows southern Greenland's ragged, crumbling coastline is scored by more than 100 canyons beneath glaciers that empty into the ocean. Many canyons are well below sea level as far as 60 miles (100 kilometers) inland. Higher ground, where glaciers could stabilize, is much farther from the coastline than previously thought. The finding calls into question the idea that the recent accelerated ice loss will be short lived.

Buried under the Greenland Ice Sheet, the subcontinent's bedrock topography has been estimated using soundings from ice-penetrating radar. However, the wet and fractured ice along the southern coastline cluttered the radar soundings so that large swaths of the bed remained invisible. To overcome that problem, Morlighem and his colleagues devised an advanced technique to create a more accurate map. The technique makes the best use of several kinds of data: ice thickness measurements derived from airborne radar; satellite radar interferometry data on the speed and direction of ice movement: and estimates of snowfall and surface melt to the sea. By combining the different types of data, they were able to map the bed topography along Greenland's margins with unprecedented precision and detail.

"We have been able to make a quantum leap in our knowledge of bed topography beneath ice sheets in the last decade, thanks to the advent of missions like NASA's Operation IceBridge in combination with satellite data on the speed these ice sheets are flowing," said coauthor Eric Rignot of UCI and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California.

The same research team reported new findings on glacial melt in West Antarctica last week.

"Together the papers illustrate clearly the globe’s ice sheets will contribute far more to sea level rise than current projections show,” said Rignot.

The study used synthetic aperture radar data collected in 2008-2009 by the Japanese Advanced Land Observing System Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS PALSAR), the Canadian RADARSAT-1, the German TerraSAR-X, and the European Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR). Ice thinning rates were derived from NASA's Airborne Topographic Mapper and ICESat data, and ice thickness data came from NASA's Operation IceBridge airborne campaigns.

An animation of the newly mapped bed topography is available at:

http://youtu.be/g_6a7SloMsY

The California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages JPL for NASA.

NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

For more information about NASA's Earth science activities in 2014, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

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ayabaca@yahoo.com

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NASA : Fjord in East Greenland Seen by NASA's Operation IceBridge

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Fjord in East Greenland Seen by NASA's Operation IceBridge

This view of the frozen fjord downstream of Violingletscher (Violin Glacier) in Østgrønland (East Greenland) was seen during an Operation IceBridge survey flight on April 5, 2014.

NASA’s Operation IceBridge images Earth's polar ice in unprecedented detail to better understand processes that connect the polar regions with the global climate system. IceBridge utilizes a highly specialized fleet of research aircraft and the most sophisticated suite of innovative science instruments ever assembled to characterize annual changes in thickness of sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets. In addition, IceBridge collects critical data used to predict the response of earth’s polar ice to climate change and resulting sea-level rise. IceBridge also helps bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's ICESat satellite missions.

> Read more about IceBridge's 2014 Arctic campaign

Image Credit: NASA/Michael Studinger

NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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NASA : NASA's Operation IceBridge Begins New Arctic Campaign

The NASA P-3 leaving the hangar at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on the morning of March 10 in preparation for the flight to Thule Air Base, Greenland.

Image Credit: NASA/Patrick Black

Researchers aboard NASA's P-3 research aircraft left the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., March 10 for Greenland to begin a new season of collecting data on Arctic land and sea ice.

The mission, known as Operation IceBridge, is to gather data on changes to polar ice and maintain continuity of measurements between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) missions. The original ICESat mission ended in 2009, and its successor, ICESat-2, is scheduled for launch in 2017.

By flying yearly campaigns, IceBridge provides valuable data on rapidly changing areas of polar land and sea ice. Flights run through May 23 from Thule Air Base and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, with a week-long deployment to Fairbanks, Alaska.

Five new NASA Earth science missions are launching in 2014 to expand our understanding of Earth’s changing climate and environment.

Over the past five years, IceBridge has surveyed large portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, as well as sea ice in both polar regions. IceBridge data have been used to build detailed maps of bedrock in Greenland and Antarctica, calculate changes in Arctic sea ice thickness and volume, and improve our understanding of the rate at which glaciers in Greenland are flowing into the sea.

The first part of the campaign will focus on sea ice in the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland and in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas north of Alaska. As in the past two years, IceBridge will provide data on ice thickness to help sea ice researchers develop more accurate seasonal Arctic sea ice models.

The remainder of the campaign will turn to measuring ice surface elevation and thickness at many of the Greenland Ice Sheet's outlet glaciers, which are channels of ice that flow from an ice sheet, constrained on its sides by bedrock. The surface elevation measurements taken by IceBridge's laser altimeter, the Airborne Topographic Mapper, will provide scientists data on how the ice sheet is changing and give a useful benchmark for ICESat-2.

Radar instruments such as the Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder, which is operated by the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., will peer beneath the surface to collect the data on ice thickness and sub-ice terrain, internal layering in the ice sheet and snow depth.

The P-3 research aircraft's extensive instrument suite features a new component this year –
a spectrometer that measures ice albedo, or reflectivity.

"A small change in albedo over the entire Arctic could have a significant effect on how much heat is absorbed by the surface," said Nathan Kurtz, a sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. This year's flights will serve as a preliminary test for the instrument.

Throughout the campaign, the IceBridge team will coordinate its efforts with other research groups working in the region. Researchers on the surface will study sea ice and snow thickness near Barrow, Alaska, in the Canadian Basin and just north of Greenland. Measurements in these areas will later be used to further verify the accuracy of IceBridge's snow radar instrument, particularly in areas with rough ice surfaces.

Panoramic view of Thule Air Base, Greenland, on Mar. 10, 2014.

Image Credit: NASA / Christy Hansen

According to Jackie Richter-Menge, sea ice scientist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., snow radar works well on ice that has not been deformed. Ice with a rougher surface can scatter radar waves, making the returning signal harder to interpret.

The IceBridge team also will work with the CryoVEx (CryoSat-2 Validation Experiment) team, which operates a campaign to verify measurements made by the European Space Agency's ice-monitoring satellite, CryoSat-2, in orbit since 2010. The IceBridge team plans to fly directly beneath the orbit of CryoSat-2 around the same time the satellite passes overhead to compare measurements. Researchers from the European Space Agency, York University in Toronto, Canada, and the Technical University of Denmark also will be flying airborne instruments to measure ice and snow.

"It's really exciting to have all of these people working together," said Richter-Menge. "It shows how interested everyone is in advancing these measurements."

Three high school science teachers from the United States, Denmark and Greenland also will join IceBridge and fly with the team to get first-hand experience and knowledge they can bring back to their classrooms. These teachers come to IceBridge through partnerships with the U.S.-Denmark-Greenland Joint Committee and PolarTREC, a U.S.-based program that pairs teachers with polar research expeditions.

For more about Operation IceBridge and to follow this year's campaign, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/icebridge

For more about PolarTREC and the IceBridge teacher research experience, visit:

http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/airborne-survey-of-polar-ice-2014

For more about the U.S.-Denmark-Greenland Joint Committee, visit:

http://denmark.usembassy.gov/gl/jc.html

NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

For more information about NASA's Earth science activities in 2014, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

 

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

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