Scientists in the Field

Footage selects from fire scar at Murphy Dome - outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. Featuring Dr. Liz Hoy, Senior Scientist for NASA's ABoVE mission. No Sound Footage selects of landscape at Murphy Dome fire scar - outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. No Sound Footage selects of the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. Footage selects of Dr. Liz Hoy conducting soil moisture measurements outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. No Sound Footage selects of Yankovic Road fire burn area near the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. No Sound Denali as seen from NASA's Gulfstream-V aircraft. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. Landscape outside of Fairbanks, Alaska as seen from NASA's Gulfstream-V aircraftNOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. Footage selects from ABoVE's UAVSAR flights over Fairbanks, Alaska. Featuring Dr. Liz Hoy and Dr. Chip Miller. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. Cockpit selects from NASA's Gulfstream-V aircraft.No Sound Slow motion footage of natural methane ignition. Big Trail Lake, AlaskaNo Sound Footage selects of aircraft ground crew.No Sound The Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, or ABoVE, is a NASA-led, 10-year field experiment designed to better understand the ecological and social consequences of environmental change in one of the most rapidly changing regions on Earth. Satellite, airborne, and ground observations across Alaska and Canada will help us better understand the local and regional effects of changing forests, permafrost, and ecosystems – and how these changes could ultimately affect people and places beyond the Arctic. These videos were filmed during the summer 2022 field campaign in Fairbanks, Alaska. Related pages

Music: "Storm Chasers," "Black Coffee," "From Small Beginnings," Universal Production MusicComplete transcript available. Carrie Vuyovich provides a wrap up of the final day of field work. Getting dressed to go out on the mesa. HP Marshall describes the project flights during SnowEx 2020. Scenes of snowmobile riding through the mesa study area. B-roll package from the SnowEx 2020 campaign in Grand Mesa, Colorado. NASA’s SnowEx ground and airborne campaign is a multiyear effort using a variety of techniques to study snow characteristics, and the team concluded their second year in March 2020. Not only is SnowEx learning valuable information about how snow properties change by terrain and season, but they are also testing the tools NASA will need to sample snow from space. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-snow-campaign-wraps-2020-survey) Related pages

Complete transcript available.This video can be freely shared and downloaded. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, some individual imagery provided by pond5.com and Artbeats is obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on stock footage may be found here. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html.Music: "Snowfall" by Andy Blythe [PRS], Marten Joustra [PRS], "Snow Blanket" by Benjamin James Parsons [PRS] Full IMPACTS Animation Sequence A GIF optimized for posting on social media. Areas that get a lot of snow tend to be beneath narrow regions within the clouds called snowbands. To understand snowbands, the IMPACTS science team will fly through them in NASA’s P-3 Orion research aircraft, based out of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. A GIF optimized for posting on social media. Wide shot of NASA's P-3 aircraft that will fly through East Coast snowstorms as part of the IMPACTS campaign. IMPACTS forecaster, Joe Finlon post-doctoral fellow at the University of Washingston, describes how to find the freeze/thaw line on a chart. Complete transcript available. A time lapse of a weather briefing where the team discussed logistics for an upcoming research flight. 4K B-roll 4K B-roll 1080 B-roll 4K B-roll When giant white swirls of clouds cover the weather map with a winter storm warning, one question looms in the minds of people in its path: How much snow will it bring? With snow threatening access to roads, work, and school – not to mention all the shoveling – winter snowfall is one of the most consequential weather phenomena on the U.S. East Coast. It’s also one of the most difficult to predict.Starting in January 2020, NASA is sending a team of scientists, a host of ground instruments, and two research aircraft to study the inner workings of snow storms. The Investigation of Microphysics Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms, or IMPACTS, field campaign will be the first comprehensive study of East Coast snowstorms in 30 years. For More InformationSee [https://espo.nasa.gov/impacts/content/IMPACTS](https://espo.nasa.gov/impacts/content/IMPACTS) Related pages

4K aerials filmed from the window of the De Havilland Otter aircraft during the 2018 Operation IceBridge Alaska campaign. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. 4K B-roll of waterfall and glacier valley. Filmed during the 2018 Operation IceBridge Alaska campaign. 4K B-roll of single-engine De Havilland Otter plane used for the mission. Filmed during the 2018 Alaska campaign. In Alaska, 5 percent of the land is covered by glaciers that are losing a lot of ice and contributing to sea level rise. To monitor these changes, a small team of NASA-funded researchers has been flying scientific instruments on a bright red, single-engine plane since spring 2009.While scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center managed the two larger yearly field campaigns in the Arctic and Antarctica, monitoring Alaskan glaciers fell on a smaller team based at the University of Fairbanks, Alaska. For More InformationSee [https://icebridge.gsfc.nasa.gov](https://icebridge.gsfc.nasa.gov) Related pages

4K footage of crewmember setting up the ATM ground station in Longyearbyen, Svalbard during the 2017 Arctic campaign. 4K footage of ATM ground station outside of the Thule Air Base during the 2016 Arctic campaign. The Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) is a scanning LIDAR developed and used by NASA for observing the Earth’s topography for several scientific applications, foremost of which is the measurement of changing Arctic and Antarctic icecaps and glaciers. It typically flies on aircraft at an altitude between 400 and 800 meters above ground level, and measures topography to an accuracy of better than 10 centimeters by incorporating measurements from GPS (global positioning system) receivers and inertial navigation system (INS) attitude sensors.The GPS ground station is an integral part of ATM operations. Having ground station data allows us to do differential GPS post processing and more accurately calculate the position of the aircraft.The ground station consists of 3 GPS receivers, an iridium notch filter, 4 port passive splitter and a netbook computer to download the data. The system has the ability to track both GPS and GLONASS constellations and is battery backed up for 24 hours of operation without power input. One of the GPS units operates at a low recording rate (logging once every 30 seconds) continually during a campaign. This data is used to calculate a resolved position for the GPS antenna. The other units record at 10hz during aircraft operations. For More InformationSee [https://atm.wff.nasa.gov/instruments/gps-ground-station/](https://atm.wff.nasa.gov/instruments/gps-ground-station/) Related pages

For the Spring 2016 Arctic campaign, the crew utilized National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s P-3 Orion Hurricane Hunter plane, 'Miss Piggy'. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia provided the laser altimeter and one of the infrared cameras on the P-3. IceBridge's three radar instruments came from the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of Kansas, while NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, provided the Digital Mapping System, and the University of Colorado loaned the second infrared camera.NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. 4K B-roll of NOAA crew aboard 'Miss Piggy' during an IceBridge mission. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. 4K B-roll of 'Miss Piggy' in the Thule Air Base hanger. The nosecone has been opened to reveal some of the radar instruments. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. IceBridge Mission Scientist, John Sonntag, discusses upcoming flight plans with the NOAA crew. In Spring of 2016, Operation IceBridge conducted its eight spring Arctic survey of polar ice over the course of five weeks. Six research flights studying sea ice were based in Thule, Greenland, while ten that focused on land ice flew out of Kangerlussuaq in southern Greenland.For the survey, the crew utilized National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s P-3 Orion Hurricane Hunter plane. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia provided the laser altimeter and one of the infrared cameras on the P-3. IceBridge's three radar instruments came from the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of Kansas, while NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, provided the Digital Mapping System, and the University of Colorado loaned the second infrared camera.During this campaign the IceBridge aircraft flew under the path of Sentinel-3A, a recently launched ESA satellite that carries a radar altimeter that gauges sea ice thickness. Scientists will compare the Sentinel-3A measurements to the data IceBridge collected over the same spots with its radar and laser altimeters. This comparison will help validate and refine Sentinel-3A’s data gathering. For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html) Related pages

NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. 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.Now, for the first time since its inaugural flights a decade ago, while IceBridge is mapping Greenland’s ice from the air, one of NASA’s newest satellite missions, the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), is simultaneously mapping that ice from space. Related pages

B-roll of cockpit operations of P3-Orion aircraft. Filmed during the 2018 Arctic campaign. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. Related pages

4K B-roll of crewmember monitoring FLIR thermal camera during the 2017 Arctic campaign. The camera is a component of the ATM instrument.NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. 4K B-roll of crewmember monitoring ATM instrument radar during the Arctic 2017 campaign. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. Crewmember monitoring ATM instrument radar during the Arctic 2017 campaign. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. B-roll of Jim Yungel explaining the ATM instrument in the lower portion of the P3-Orion aircraft. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. B-roll of crewmembers monitoring the ATM rack during the 2017 Arctic campaign. Subsequent shots of ATM instrument onboard the P3-Orion aircraft. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. The Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM), developed at NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va., is a scanning laser altimeter that measures changes in ice surface elevation. It accomplishes this by reflecting lasers off the ice surface and measuring the time it takes light to return to the aircraft, usually flying between 1000 and 2000 feet above the ground. By combining this timing data with detailed information about the aircraft’s position and attitude from GPS and inertial navigation systems, ATM can measure topography to an accuracy of as small as four inches. By flying ATM over the same swath of ground previously covered by ICESat, researchers can maintain a record of changes.In addition, the precise data from ATM’s navigation system can be fed to pilot displays in the cockpit or even electronically sent to the automatic pilot system, keeping the aircraft aligned with the planned survey track. This keeps the aircraft along the planned ATM survey swath and also benefits the other IceBridge instruments by minimizing aircraft roll and horizontal acceleration.The ATM has been participating in NASA's Operation IceBridge since 2009. For More InformationSee [https://icebridge.gsfc.nasa.gov/?page_id=118](https://icebridge.gsfc.nasa.gov/?page_id=118) Related pages

Arctic 2017 campaign. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. 4K B-roll during Arctic 2019 campaign. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. Arctic 2016 campaign. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. 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.The below clips represent a miscellaneous collection of instruments used during the Arctic campaigns. For More InformationSee [https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html) Related pages

NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NOTE: The audio on this clip varies widely and includes loud aircraft noise. We advise turning down/off sound when previewing this item. NASA's P-3B and DC-8 airborne laboratories have been the workhorses of Operation IceBridge. These aircraft house several sophisticated instruments for measuring snow depth, ice elevation and thickness, surface temperature, bed topography and other characteristics of sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers. Related pages

Music: "Watching Evolution," "Formulas and Equations," Killer Tracks MusicComplete transcript available. Music: "Late Night Drive," Killer Tracks MusicIt's the second year for the 88-South Antarctic Traverse, designed to check the accuracy of the ICESat-2 satellite, and mechanic and PistenBully expert Matt Means joined the trek on the ice sheet. B-roll selects from Year 2 of the 88-South Antarctic Traverse.Videography courtesy of Kelly Brunt, Adam Greeley, Matthew Means and Chris Simmons. For the second straight year, NASA researchers endured low temperatures, biting winds, and high altitude to conduct another 88-South Traverse. The 470-mile expedition in one of the most barren landscapes on Earth provides the best means of assessment of the accuracy of data collected from space by the Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). The researchers drove tracked vehicles called PistenBullys, which were instrumented with GPS to collect highly precise elevation data along 88-degrees South, where ICESat-2’s orbits converge. These data were then used to make direct comparisons with ICESat-2 elevation data. With a fast-firing laser instrument, ICESat-2 measures the elevation of ice sheets and tracks how much they change over time. Even small amounts of melt across areas as vast as Greenland or Antarctica can result in large amounts of meltwater contributing to sea level rise. To help document this, ICESat-2's height change measurements will have a precision of less than an inch – ground-truthed, in part, with efforts like this Antarctic campaign. The traverse was funded by NASA, but had substantial logistical support from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs. Related pages

NASA cryospheric scientist Kelly Brunt and ICESat-2 Deputy Project Scientist Tom Neumann recall some of the highlights and challenges from the recent 88-South Antarctic Traverse.Music: "Lights," Alexius Tschallener [SUISA], Dominik Johnson [PRS]; "Vulnerable Moment," John Ashton Thomas [PRS]Complete transcript available. B-roll selects 1 B-roll selects 2 With extreme cold-weather gear, scientific instruments, and two tank-like snow machines called PistenBullys, NASA scientists began a traverse on December 21 along section of the 88-degree south latitude line in an arc around the South Pole, documenting a new route across the Antarctic ice. The 470-mile expedition in one of the most barren landscapes on Earth provided the best assessment of the accuracy of data collected from space by the Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), set to launch in 2018. With a fast-firing laser instrument, ICESat-2 will measure the elevation of ice sheets and track how much they change over time. Even small amounts of melt across areas as vast as Greenland or Antarctica can result in large amounts of meltwater contributing to sea level rise. To help document this, ICESat-2's height change measurements will have a precision of less than an inch – ground-truthed, in part, with efforts like this Antarctic campaign. The team will collected precise GPS data of the elevation at 88 degrees south, where ICESat-2’s orbits converge, providing thousands of points where the survey measurements can be compared to satellite data. Related pages

During the 2017 SnowEx field campaign, the P-3 Orion aircraft flew over Grand Mesa and Senator Beck Basin in Colorado. The P-3 Orion aircraft was stationed at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. A collection of 4K b-roll captured during a science flight on the P-3 Orion aircraft. SnowEx is a NASA led multi-year research campaign to improve measurements of how much snow is on the ground at any given time and how much liquid water is contained in that snow.Five aircraft with a total of ten different sensors will participate in the SnowEx campaign. From a base of operations at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, SnowEx will deploy a P-3 Orion aircraft operated by the Scientific Development Squadron ONE (VXS-1), based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. A King Air plane will fly out of Grand Junction, Colorado, while high-altitude NASA jets will fly from Johnson Space Center in Houston.The planes will carry passive and active microwave sensors that are good at measuring snow-water equivalent in dry snow, but are less optimal for measuring snow forests or light snow cover. The campaign will also deploy an airborne laser instrument to measure snow depth, and airborne sensors to measure surface temperature and reflected light from snow.Data acquired from the SnowEx campaign will be stored at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, and will be available to anyone to order at no cost, as is the case with all NASA data.For more information: https://www.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions For More InformationSee [NASA: Snow Science in Support of Our Nation’s Water Supply](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/snow-science-in-support-of-our-nations-water-supply) Related pages