The NASA P3 aircraft resumed flying OIB science missions today by successfully completing the sea-ice mission “East Beaufort” . Weather was generally good, sunny with high overcast and occasional patches of low clouds that really did not impact the optical sensors much. All OIB sea ice remote sensing instruments reported good data collection.
Tomorrow, our plan is for OIB teams to rest throughout the day, and begin pref-light preparations at midnight for a 2 am departure from Fairbanks to arrive at Thule about 4 pm Monday.
Photos from today’s mission and some ATM data plots below:
Another in my meandering frozen river series
An oil drilling barge just offshore on our return
An oil drilling barge just offshore on our return
Another in my meandering frozen river series
ATM T6 wide scan lidar elevation plot over sea ice leads
ATM T6 wide scan lidar elevation plot over sea ice leads. Detail of previous plot, showing 10KHz laser rate data density coverage