NASA's IceBridge Flies Over the Front of a Greenland Glacier

Operation IceBridge, NASA’s airborne survey of polar ice, completed its first Greenland research flight of 2016 on April 19, kicking off its eighth spring Arctic campaign. This year’s science flights over Arctic sea and land ice will continue until May 21, 2016.

This top-down view from a NOAA P-3 Orion aircraft shows the calving front of Sermeq Kujatdleq glacier, located on the west coast of Greenland. The aircraft’s number-two lower engine nacelle and left main landing gear fairing is in the foreground at the top of the image.

During its seven years of operations in the Arctic, IceBridge has gathered large volumes of data on changes in the elevation of the ice sheet and its internal structure. Measurements from IceBridge have revealed a 460-mile-long (740 kilometers) canyon hiding under a mile of ice and mapped the extent of a vast liquid water aquifer beneath the snow in southern Greenland. IceBridge’s readings of the thickness of sea ice and its snow cover have helped scientists improve forecasts for the summer melt season and have enhanced the understanding of variations in ice thickness distribution from year to year.