OIB successfully completed the “Smith-Pope-Kohler IS2” mission today, in mostly sunny conditions, however wind driven uplift clouds developed over the far southwest edge of today’s survey area causing just a few minutes of camera and laser optical data loss over the ~3.5 hours of data collection. The winds also caused a bit of turbulence from time to time over the entire survey area. All OIB remote sensing instruments again operated nominally with everyone reporting good data collection.
Smith Glacier is a low-gradient Antarctic glacier, over 160 km (100 mi) long, draining from Toney Mountain in an ENE direction to Amundsen Sea. A northern distributary, Kohler Glacier, drains to Dotson Ice Shelf but the main flow passes to the sea between Bear Peninsula and Mount Murphy, terminating at Crosson Ice Shelf. Mapped by USGS from ground surveys and USN air photos, 1959–65. Named by US-ACAN after Philip M. Smith (Smith Bluffs), Deputy Director, Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, who in the period 1956–71 participated in a large number of expeditions to Antarctica in field and supervisory capacities.
Pope Glacier (75°19′S 111°22′W Coordinates: 75°19′S 111°22′W) is a glacier about 20 nautical miles (37 km) long, flowing north along the west side of Mount Murphy to Crosson Ice Shelf on Walgreen Coast, in Marie Byrd Land. Mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1959-66. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) after Maj. Donald R. Pope, (CE) USA, civil engineer on the staff of the Commander, Naval Support Force, Antarctica, 1965-67.
