Operation IceBridge - Arctic Spring 2013

[Apocalypse4Real]

Icebridge and Hunter are flying Jakobshavn Glacier and Fjord - did one run yesterday. Here are a couple of pics and lidar/visual imagery.

[Hunter]

Its been turbulent the last few days (laptops bouncing etc), and again today from what I hear from my ground link to the plane.

Yesterday was east coast glaciers today back to Jakobshavn.  Below are some images from the team yesterday, I think the top 2 pics is Helheim. 

Plots are most definitely not for scientific use, they are generated as a quick look product only during the flight.

been very warm here in Kangerlussuaq the last week!

[Artful Dodger]

Yesterday was east coast glaciers today back to Jakobshavn.  Below are some images from the team yesterday, I think the top 2 pics is Helheim. 

Thanks Hunter. Here is a map and a plan view of Helheim glacier for context.

[Jim Hunt]

Hot off the presses from the Operation IceBridge Facebook page:

IceBridge will fly a 7 hour science mission today over the Humboldt and Petermann Glaciers in northwest Greenland.

https://www.facebook.com/NasaOperationIcebridge

[ChrisReynolds]

Thanks for the updates Hunter.

[frankendoodle]

Thanks a lot Jim, and thank you NASA for the convenience of updates thru Facebook.

[Hunter]

TerryM was asking about the PII2012 iceberg,

Well yesterday they got to see it!


Here you go.

[TerryM]

Thank you so much!


Ever since Andreas Muenchow participated in the quick run into Petermann Fjord while the ice island was still at the mouth of it I've been hungry for more information. These photos are nothing short of amazing. Andreas contributes here from time to time & his
http://icyseas.org/author/muenchow/
blog is a must read for anyone with more than a passing interest in Nares Strait or Petermann Glacier.


With our new forum allowing discussion of all the individual features that we involve ourselves in under the general umbrella of Arctic Sea Ice this year will be exceptional even if no records are broken.


Terry

[theman]

Word on the street is that the first batch of IceBridge Spring 2013 data is going to be released very soon, perhaps even within the next day or two. I've heard it looks very interesting so they want to get this out soon. Sorry to be cryptic, but that's all the information I have right now!

[CraigsIsland]

Awesome! There's quite a few people interested in Icebridge around here who will appreciate the data.

[Artful Dodger]

Word on the street is that the first batch of IceBridge Spring 2013 data is going to be released very soon

Thanks T-M, and Welcome to the ASI Forum! 

[Andreas Muenchow]

Word on the street is that the first batch of IceBridge Spring 2013 data is going to be released very soon, perhaps even within the next day or two. I've heard it looks very interesting so they want to get this out soon. Sorry to be cryptic, but that's all the information I have right now!

Ohhh, I would very much looooove to see the actual data to compare it against 2007, 2010, and 2011 data of Petermann Gletscher. The University of Kansas has plots they made from pre-liminary data from their ice penetrating radar data at

https://data.cresis.ku.edu/data/rds/2013_Greenland_P3/

[anonymous]

I made a simple plot from data taken end of March. There are readings up to 20m for thickness, but the plot uses a max of 6m, everything above has same color. Beaufort Sea shows what could be expected after the cracking event. Latest one month after the melting started there will be lots of scattered floes. One might anticipate frequent century breaks in both directions once the wind dictates extent.

[ChrisReynolds]

Thanks Arctic.io

Reasonable agreement with PIOMAS for March.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8259/8637741461_5ab2158f75_o.jpg

But bear in mind PIOMAS thicknesses are 'effective thickness' of grid boxes. The IceBridge transetc data picks up ridging at sub-grid scale w.r.t PIOMAS.

[anonymous]

I've figured 3 long flight tracks are same in 12 and 13, expect a comparison soon. IIRC IceBRidge has 40m 'gridboxes'.

[ChrisReynolds]

I didn't get as far as working that out from the data. But at one stage I was looking at intercomparing PIOMAS and IceBridge.

Lack of data pre and post 2012 meant it never became a major priority. IIRC the earlier data wasn't at the IceBridge portal ftp server, even though flights were referenced. Now I have enough corroborative evidence re 2010 so don't feel compelled to put myself through the unpleasant task of programming an intercomparison. 

Lazy? Me?   

[arcticicelost80]

http://www.arcus.org/search/seaiceoutlook/data

NEW! Spring 2013 NASA IceBridge Sea Ice Freeboard, Snow Depth, and Thickness Quick Look Dataset
    This dataset is an evaluation product containing derived geophysical data products retrieved over the arctic sea ice cover from 21 to 27 March 2013 using the IceBridge Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM), Snow Radar, Digital Mapping System (DMS), and KT19 pyrometer. This quick look product is experimental and is designed to be applicable for time-sensitive projects such as sea ice forecasting. The data were collected as part of the NASA Operation IceBridge Mission, are stored in ASCII text files, and are available through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

    2013 and 2012 Operation Ice Bridge Quick Look Sea Ice Products: http://nsidc.org/data/docs/daac/icebridge/evaluation_products/sea-ice-freeboard-snowdepth-thickness-quicklook-index.html

    Operation IceBridge Data Portal (Full Dataset and Documentation): http://nsidc.org/icebridge/portal/

[arcticicelost80]

When flying on April 24 the average thickness sea ice at north 89 latitude -  2.3 meters.

[Sigmetnow]

NASA video | From the Cockpit: The Best of IceBridge Arctic 2013




Also:  One hour archived web event hosted by Mark Buesing. Mark worked with the NASA IceBridge team to survey polar ice over Greenland in 2013.
http://www.polartrec.com/resources/event/mark-buesing-and-nasa-icebridge

[Sigmetnow]

For those of you on Twitter, NASA scientists will be having a question-and-answer session on “All Things Frozen” at 2pm Eastern (US) Daylight Time on Wednesday, September 4, 2013.  Use an #askclimate hashtag.

(For those of you not on Twitter, it’s easy to join -- you just need to give your name, your e-mail address, and pick a username.  Twitter will suggest some accounts you might like to follow to get you started.  You’ll need to follow @NASA_ICE for the the Q&A.)      twitter.com

You can ask questions during the session by replying to any “tweet” (message of up to 140 characters) from @NASA_ICE. Include the hashtag ID “#askclimate” (without the quote marks) in your tweet to be sure they see it during the session.

[diablobanquisa]

Arctic Sea Ice Conditions in Spring 2009 - 2013 Prior to Melt
Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge, Sinead L. Farrell

pdf


Abstract

Measurements from NASA IceBridge airborne surveys in March/April 2009-2013 over the western Arctic Ocean are presented in the context of previous observations to assess changes in the characteristics of the sea ice cover during the last decade, taking into account spatial and temporal limitations in the available data. Following a precipitous drop in the amount and thickness of multiyear (MY) ice in 2007-2008, the characteristics of the ice cover have remained largely consistent through March 2013. The central Arctic continues to be dominated by MY ice with a mean and modal thickness of 3.2 m and 2.4 m, respectively. The southern Beaufort and Chukchi Sea region is a complex mixture of ~ 75% first-year (FY) ice and 25% MY ice. IceBridge observations indicate that the mean thickness in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas may have decreased from ~ 2.5 m to as low as 1.6 m over the 5-year period.