NASA to Host Media Briefing on New Ice-Monitoring Mission

[pikaia]

"NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Aug. 22, to discuss the upcoming launch of the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2), which will fly NASA’s most advanced laser altimeter to measure Earth’s changing ice. The teleconference will stream live on NASA’s website.

ICESat-2 is scheduled to launch Sept. 15 on a mission to provide critical, precision measurements of Earth’s ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice, which will help scientists better understand how changes at the poles will affect people around the world."

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-host-media-briefing-on-new-ice-monitoring-mission

[Wherestheice]

This looks to be a very helpful launch!

[Dharma Rupa]

Kindly repeat this notice Wednesday, Aug. 22 at about 9:00 EDT and again at about Noon.

[HapHazard]

[pikaia]

Starting shortly.

[magnamentis]

that's really really great news for once, i excpect/hope for huge improvements especially in volume measurements which IMO is the most important indicator for all climate and polar ice related things.

[litesong]

that's really really great news for once, i excpect/hope for huge improvements especially in volume measurements which IMO is the most important indicator for all climate and polar ice related things.

Ah, with recent "don'T rump" supporters Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Chris Collins,  & Duncan Hunter (& wife) headed fer the pokey to join a growing group of greedy gaolbird re-pubic-lick-uns, maybe "don'T rump" ain't got no time to oppose this moment of AGW science advancement.

[HapHazard]

5 days out - figured I'd post a link as a reminder. Watch the launch live. 

https://icesat-2.gsfc.nasa.gov/launch-info

[Phil42]

Week 1 update: #ICESat2 is looking great!
Solar array deployed, all subsystems turned on, and we’re busy checking everything out. Navigation works perfectly, guiding us along our planned orbit.
 ~1 week until it's time to open the door & turn on the laser!

Everything is looking good for our new hope for better data collection up there. We will probably get another update after the first laser tests. I'm really excited for this one.

[tvansant]

ICESat-2 has fired its laser and the very first analysis of returns have been made (Antarctica). A milestone.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/icesat-2-laser-fires-for-1st-time-measures-antarctic-height

[Stephan]

This is good news. I hope that all the other instruments will also work properly.

[tvansant]

From the Wikipedia entry for ICESat-2:

"The sole instrument on ICESat-2 is the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), a space-based LIDAR. ATLAS measures the travel time of laser photons from the satellite to Earth and back; computer programs use the travel time from multiple pulses to determine elevation."

"The ATLAS laser emits visible laser pulses at 532 nm wavelength. The laser was developed and built by Fibertek. As ICESat-2 orbits, the ATLAS generates six beams arranged in three pairs, with the pairs 3.3 km apart, in order to better determine the surface's slope and provide more ground coverage. ATLAS takes elevation measurements every 70 cm along the satellite's ground path.
The laser fires at a rate of 10 kHz. Each pulse sends out about 20 trillion photons, almost all of which are dispersed or deflected as the pulse travels to Earth's surface and bounces back to the satellite. About a dozen photons from each pulse return to the instrument and are collected with a beryllium telescope."