Briefing Materials: NASA Airborne Campaigns Focus on Climate Impacts in the Arctic, Alaska
Released on September 16, 2014
Earth’s northern polar region, one of the most rapidly changing areas of our planet, is the focus of three recent NASA research campaigns and will be discussed in detail during a media teleconference at 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 16.
The airborne field campaigns will examine changing glacier elevations in Alaska, thawing permafrost and the impact of sea ice retreat on the Arctic climate.
NASA’s first campaign to study the link between sea ice retreat, clouds and the energy balance in the Arctic is underway, flying out of Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Arctic Radiation-IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment (ARISE) is making flights over Arctic sea ice to measure ice, cloud properties and incoming and outgoing radiation.
NASA is wrapping up the third year of flights for the Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE), which is measuring the emission of greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost. Operation IceBridge-Alaska recently concluded its sixth year of flights measuring changes of Alaskan mountain glaciers.
GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation:
Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0