OIB opened the 2018 Arctic deployment with a successful sea ice “Zig Zag East” mission today. We had some clouds for the first few minutes of the easternmost data line, and some minor ATM start up issues for about 15 minutes of the first line, and then had a fairly good day. ATM also had a minor issue with the dual color T7 laser, resulting in greater than normal fluctuations in pulse power. Most of the ATM T7 data should be correctable in processing. We believe we’ve isolated the source of the problem, and should have a fix tomorrow. The other OIB remote sensing instruments reported good data collection.
Tomorrow we’ll be flying the Laxon line from Thule to Fairbanks, as OIB relocates our base of operations to Fairbanks for the next series of missions. The western coast of Greenland on the way north this morning
Sea ice leads and deformed ice. (NASA/Jeremy Harbeck)
ATM T6 wide scan lidar elevation map over sea ice, 1 meter full scale color bar. The 10,000 Hz laser has increased data density by a factor of 3.
ATM T6 wide scan lidar elevation map over sea ice, 1.5 meter full scale color bar, showing ice ridges and a refrozen lead.
ATM T7 green narrow scan lidar elevation map over sea ice, showing some ice chunks.
ATM T7 green narrow scan lidar elevation map over sea ice, showing some ice ridges.