We had a very successful first 2017 Spring OIB mission today, completing the Sea Ice North Pole Transect. Flying toward the north this early in the season meant very low sun angles (sometimes below the horizon near the Pole) and the weather near the Pole was hazy, but the laser lidars managed to track the ice surface over all mission lines, and the FLIR and cameras actually did better than expected in the conditions, and the CReSIS radars are not impacted by atmospheric conditions, so we had a very successful data collection day. Of note, the wide scan ATM T6 lidar system successfully used a new laser firing 1.3 sec pulses, 10,000 times a second today.
We’ll see if weather permits a science mission to Fairbanks (or a local mission) tomorrow.
