Operation IceBridge - Deprecated

  • Released Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
  • Updated Friday, February 8th, 2019 at 12:00AM

Overview

IceBridge, a NASA field campaign currently in its 11th year, 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 provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of both Arctic 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) -- launched in 2003 -- and ICESat-2, launched September 15, 2018. ICESat stopped collecting science data in 2009, making IceBridge critical for ensuring a continuous series of observations.

IceBridge uses airborne instruments to map Arctic and Antarctic areas once a year before the spring melt season takes hold. The first IceBridge flights were conducted in March/May 2009 over Greenland and in October/November 2009 over Antarctica. Other smaller airborne surveys around the world are also part of the IceBridge campaign.

Photos and HD video clips

Recent videos and greatest hits

Data visualizations and conceptual animations

Arctic

In March, Operation IceBridge flies out of Thule and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, measuring the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic sea ice with its instruments aboard a P-3B aircraft from the Wallops Flight Facility. The LViS instrument fiels on a smaller aircraft which in 2012 was NASA Langley's HU-25C.

Antarctic

In October, Operation IceBridge flies over Antarctica from its base of operations in Punta Arenas, Chile, typically with the DC-8 aircraft supplied by NASA Dryden. A smaller aircraft carrying the LViS instrument also joins the campaign, which in 2011 was a Gulfstream V operated by the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.