All,
A successful Abbot 02 mission was completed today, in generally good weather, with a few cloud patches on the east and west portions of the grid causing only minimal (<5 minutes) loss of data for the optical ATM lidar and DMS camera. All OIB instruments reported good data collection. This mission was not as scenic as some, but we were pleased to have a “boring” day with all the instruments performing well.
We did fly close to the Rignot Glacier (Greetings, Eric!) on the western portion of the grid today, as designated on the details map below.
OIB will take a well-earned “hard down” day tomorrow to rest, and we plan on attempting a mission on Monday, weather permitting as always.
Joe MacGregor giving the science objectives portion of the pre-flight brief in the Punta Arenas OIB Ops Center
Some place names on today’s flight:
Abbot Ice Shelf
An ice shelf 250 mi long and 40 mi wide, bordering Eights Coast from Cape Waite to Phrogner Point. Thurston Island lies along the N edge of the W half of this ice shelf; other sizable islands (Sherman, Carpenter, Dustin, Johnson, McNamara, Farwell and Dendtler) lie partly or wholly within it. The ice shelf was sighted by members of USAS in flights from the ship Bear, in February 1940, and its W portion was delineated from air photos taken by USN Operation HighJump, 1946-47. The full extent was mapped by USGS from USN air photos of 1966. Named by US-ACAN for R. Admiral J. Lloyd Abbot, Jr., Commanding Officer, U.S. Naval Support Force, Antarctica, February 1967 to June 1969.
Eights Coast
That portion of the coast of Antarctica between Cape Waite and Phrogner Point. This coast is bordered by Thurston Island, Abbot Ice Shelf and some islands within the ice shelf. It was sighted by members of the USAS in flights from the ship from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1960-66. Named by US-SCAN for James Eights of Albany, NY, geologist on the Annawan in 1830, who carried on geologic investigations in the South Shetland Islands, and who cruised westward on the Annawan, in company with the Penguin, to 103°W. Eights, the earliest American scientist in the Antarctic, discovered the first known fossils in the Antarctic region, a tree section, in the South Shetland Islands. As a result of these investigations Eights, in 1833, published in the Transactions of the Albany Institute (Vol. 2) what proved to be remarkably accurate observations and conclusions on the natural phenomena of the region.
Peacock Sound
An ice-filled sound, 135 mi long and 40 mi wide, separating Thurston Island from the Eights Coast of Ellsworth Land. The sound is not navigable by ships, it being occupied by the western part of Abbot Ice Shelf. The feature was discovered by members of the USAS in flights from the ship Bear in February 1940, and was further delineated from air photos taken by USN Operation HighJump in December 1946. The sound was first noted to parallel the entire S coast of Thurston Island, thereby establishing insularity, by the USN Bellingshausen Sea Expedition in February 1960. Named after the sloop of war Peacock in which Capt. William L. Hudson, in company with the tender Flying Fish under Lt. William M. Walker, both of the USEE, 1838-42, sailed along the edge of the pack ice to the north of Thurston Island for several days in March 1839.
Rignot Glacier
Glacier about 4 mi long draining N from the King Peninsula into Abbot Ice Shelf. Named by US-ACAN after Eric J. Rignot, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, geophysicist; uses field and remotely sensed data to study Antarctic glacier mechanics from the 1990s to the present.
An ice shelf 250 mi long and 40 mi wide, bordering Eights Coast from Cape Waite to Phrogner Point. Thurston Island lies along the N edge of the W half of this ice shelf; other sizable islands (Sherman, Carpenter, Dustin, Johnson, McNamara, Farwell and Dendtler) lie partly or wholly within it. The ice shelf was sighted by members of USAS in flights from the ship Bear, in February 1940, and its W portion was delineated from air photos taken by USN Operation HighJump, 1946-47. The full extent was mapped by USGS from USN air photos of 1966. Named by US-ACAN for R. Admiral J. Lloyd Abbot, Jr., Commanding Officer, U.S. Naval Support Force, Antarctica, February 1967 to June 1969.
Eights Coast
That portion of the coast of Antarctica between Cape Waite and Phrogner Point. This coast is bordered by Thurston Island, Abbot Ice Shelf and some islands within the ice shelf. It was sighted by members of the USAS in flights from the ship from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1960-66. Named by US-SCAN for James Eights of Albany, NY, geologist on the Annawan in 1830, who carried on geologic investigations in the South Shetland Islands, and who cruised westward on the Annawan, in company with the Penguin, to 103°W. Eights, the earliest American scientist in the Antarctic, discovered the first known fossils in the Antarctic region, a tree section, in the South Shetland Islands. As a result of these investigations Eights, in 1833, published in the Transactions of the Albany Institute (Vol. 2) what proved to be remarkably accurate observations and conclusions on the natural phenomena of the region.
Peacock Sound
An ice-filled sound, 135 mi long and 40 mi wide, separating Thurston Island from the Eights Coast of Ellsworth Land. The sound is not navigable by ships, it being occupied by the western part of Abbot Ice Shelf. The feature was discovered by members of the USAS in flights from the ship Bear in February 1940, and was further delineated from air photos taken by USN Operation HighJump in December 1946. The sound was first noted to parallel the entire S coast of Thurston Island, thereby establishing insularity, by the USN Bellingshausen Sea Expedition in February 1960. Named after the sloop of war Peacock in which Capt. William L. Hudson, in company with the tender Flying Fish under Lt. William M. Walker, both of the USEE, 1838-42, sailed along the edge of the pack ice to the north of Thurston Island for several days in March 1839.
Rignot Glacier
Glacier about 4 mi long draining N from the King Peninsula into Abbot Ice Shelf. Named by US-ACAN after Eric J. Rignot, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, geophysicist; uses field and remotely sensed data to study Antarctic glacier mechanics from the 1990s to the present.
Wide view of today’s mission
Detail of today’s lines over the Abbot Ice Shelf
Clouds over eastern Thurston Island
The eastern edge of the Abbott Ice Shelf
Eight Coast from a distance
South coast of Thurston Island
South coast of Thurston Island
Crevasses
Icebergs on the distant western edge of the Abbott Ice Shelf
ATM T6 wide scan lidar surface elevation map of some crevasses. The T6 scan pattern is evident in this plot.