Operation IceBridge, a six year mission to map the polar ice with unprecedented accuracy, flies missions year round. Coincidentally, they were in Fairbanks flying missions into the Arctic Ocean at the same time I am here training with PolarTREC (the organization that pairs teachers with polar researchers). So I got to meet them!
Michael Studinger (Project Scientist), Mark Buesing (PolarTREC teacher), and Christy Hansen (Project Manager)
After meeting the team I drove to the airport to get my first look at the P-3 Orion.
After meeting Michael and Christy in the afternoon, they invited me to the airport to watch them takeoff … at 1:30 a.m. Of course I went! I even got to go inside the P-3 for the first time.
Standing inside the P-3 Orion with Michael Studinger, the project scientist. You can see some of the equipment behind us.
I got to take some pictures of the P-3 before it took off for Greenland.
Moon over the P-3
It was cold taking pictures of the P-3 on the windy tarmac at -2 F!
I'll next see this plane in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.
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The P-3's flight from Fairbanks to Thule, Greenland. They measured the sea ice all along the way. I'll catch up with them in a week in Kangerlussuaq. Image courtesy of NASA and Operation IceBridge.
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http://youtu.be/WJX80Ac2kss .
I got a few complaints from my 7-year-old daughter that yesterday's questions were a bit confusing, so today's are geared more for her:
1) In the video you saw that there are four blades on each engine. There are also four engines on the plane. So how many total blades are there?
2) In the video, you might have noticed the blinking red strobe light. It blinks once every second, or as we say in physics, the blinking has a frequency of 1 Hertz. How many times does it blink in one minute? In one hour?
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Answers: 16, 60, 3600 (that last one is tough!)