The 2018 Antarctic OIB deployment started with a very successful “Slessor Grounding Zone/Lake IS2” mission today!
Following a very long, high altitude commute to our study site today (~4 hours of DC8 transit flying at ~500/mph so call it a 2000 mile “commute”), NASA 817 descended near Slessor Glacier and the OIB remote sensing instruments began collecting data at 1500′ above the snow and ice. The weather was clear and sunny, with only a few very mild turbulence bumps over the glacier. All OIB instruments reported good data collection today, including ATM collecting both T6 wide scan green lidar, and T7 narrow scan simultaneous green and infrared lidar waveforms. Additionally ATM collected data from the new HeadWall visible/infrared imaging spectrometer over ice and snow for the first time.
We’re looking forward to another mission attempt tomorrow.
The edge of Bailey Glacier (photo by John Sonntag)
View of Slessor Glacier crevasses
Over a transition from crevasses to smooth glacier ice
Mountains on the south edge of Slessor Glacier
Mountains on the south edge of Slessor Glacier
Reflections from various types of ice and snow
Mountains on the south edge of Slessor Glacier
The ATM rack with many video display monitoring lidar signals from two green and one IR laser beams (Rob Russell in the photo)
Setting sunlight on Antarctic Peninsula Mountains on our way back to Punta Arenas
NASA 817’s flight track today
A wider view to show more of Antarctica
A yet wider view showing the remote location of today’s Slessor Glacier science site.