1 00:00:01,050 --> 00:00:05,000 [music] 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:09,000 Kurtz: MOSAiC is a yearlong drifting expedition in the Arctic. 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:13,050 As part of MOSAiC, it’s a suite of in situ, 4 00:00:13,050 --> 00:00:17,000 airborne data, all kinds of data, taken, centered around 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:21,050 this ship. And one of the things that’s onboard is a helicopter, 6 00:00:21,050 --> 00:00:25,050 and so the helicopter is equipped with a laser altimeter 7 00:00:25,050 --> 00:00:29,000 and a camera, which is perfect for validating ICESat-2. 8 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,050 We looked at the ICESat-2 orbit tracks, and we realized that MOSAiC had drifted 9 00:00:33,050 --> 00:00:37,050 very close to where ICESat-2 was going to pass over. 10 00:00:37,050 --> 00:00:41,050 So we planned an underflight directly under where ICESat-2 was 11 00:00:41,050 --> 00:00:45,050 measuring. What we’re seeing in this cloud of photons 12 00:00:45,050 --> 00:00:49,050 from ICESat-2 is largely the flatness and 13 00:00:49,050 --> 00:00:53,050 uniformity of the sea ice cover, but what you really see that stands out 14 00:00:53,050 --> 00:00:57,000 are these spikes, these ridges. And so these are these massive 15 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:01,050 2, 3, 4, 5, 6-feet, or even higher, ridges that are 16 00:01:01,050 --> 00:01:05,000 just massive blocks of ice piled up. And so those really stand out 17 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:09,050 in the photon cloud. And so we got a lot of very good validation 18 00:01:09,050 --> 00:01:13,050 data that we normally wouldn’t this time of year because of 19 00:01:13,050 --> 00:01:17,050 numerous cancellations, for instance, the major airborne component of MOSAiC 20 00:01:17,050 --> 00:01:21,050 had been cancelled because of world events. And so now with the 21 00:01:21,050 --> 00:01:25,050 helicopter that was on board we were able to collect valuable validation data. 22 00:01:25,050 --> 00:01:29,050 [helicopter rotors] What’s also important about this dataset from MOSAiC is the 23 00:01:29,050 --> 00:01:33,050 collaborative nature. MOSAiC involves over 20 nations, and so 24 00:01:33,050 --> 00:01:37,050 now people from all those different nations are able to take 25 00:01:37,050 --> 00:01:41,050 this data that we collected and compared it in an independent way to what ICESat-2 is measuring. 26 00:01:41,050 --> 00:01:45,621 [music]