OIB resumed science missions today following poor Antarctic weather yesterday. Once again, the western side of Antarctica had poor weather so we returned to the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which had better weather today, and successfully completed the land ice “Support Force-Upper Blackwall IS-2” mission. This mission will compliment several previously flown 2018 missions creating a nice set of data. OIB instruments reported good data collection with the exception of the ATM imaging spectrometer which suffered loss of the IR image data for unknown reasons. We’ll troubleshoot that issue tomorrow.
We’ll check the weather tomorrow to determine if we can fly another mission.
–> Support Force Glacier is a major glacier in the Pensacola Mountains, draining northward between the Forrestal Range and Argentina Range to the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. Mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and US Navy air photos, 1956-66. Named by US-ACAN for the U.S. Naval Support Force Antarctica, which provided logistical support for the United States Antarctic Program during this period.
Wide view of today’s flight path
Detailed view of today’s flight lines
Antarctic Peninsula Mountains on southbound track
Antarctic Peninsula Mountains on southbound track
Snow covered crevasses on the Support Force Glacier
Pensacola Mountains and a snow filled crevasse
Pensacola Mountains
Snow covered crevasses and blowing snow on the Support Force Glacier
Pensacola Mountains
Pensacola Mountains
Antarctic Peninsula Mountains on southbound track
ATM T6 wide scan elevation data plot showing the fairly flat snow surface in detail (6 meter full scale).