Operation IceBridge - Inspecting P3 Aircraft

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.



The IceBridge 2019 springtime flights use NASA Wallops Flight Facility’s P-3 Orion aircraft. The plane carries a comprehensive instrument suite: two laser altimeters that measure ice surface elevation, two radar systems to study snow layers and the bedrock underneath the ice sheet, a high-resolution camera that generates georeferenced images of polar ice, a hyperspectral imager that records the brightness of the surface across a wide spectral range, and an infrared camera to measure the surface temperature of ice.

See https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html