Hello, everyone! Today was a scheduled ground day for me so that I could meet all of you through our PolarCONNECT event, but I started the day off at Hangar 8 to join the team before they headed out. When I arrived for 'plane-side' (our scheduled 7:15 a.m .local pre-flight meeting on board), Miss Piggy was still in the hangar. Normally by plane-side she is outside fueling up while we get instruments running and prepare for our brief upstairs. On this day in particular, the visibility outside was very low with a thick, low-hanging fog hovering over the air base. The plane was not heading out, at least not on time. The decision early in the morning was to remain on standby and potentially fly an abbreviated mission with an 11 a.m. or noon departure. Unfortunately as the minutes pressed on, there was no clearing in sight and the science mission was scrubbed. The weather here in Thule is very fickle and visibility can change drastically at the drop of a hat. There are days when every mountain, every fjord, and every landmark around Thule is visible and skies are blue and sunny. But without warning, the fog rolls in, the ceiling drops, and we are lucky if we can see a sliver of Mt. Dundas (sometimes top, sometimes base). This is all part of airborne science and it absolutely reinforces the challenge of making sure we collect data when we can because some years it will be tougher to gather than others. Field research comes with its challenges, but the rewards and the overall outcome of a project like Operation IceBridge far outweigh these minor curveballs that Mother Nature throws our way. We're looking forward to a Friday and Saturday flight if the weather clears.
PolarCONNECTIt was wonderful to connect with so many of you through our PolarCONNECT event! We stationed ourselves at Base Operations (Base Opps) where our morning weather decisions are made. I loved sharing information with all of you about Operation IceBridge's goals, as well as my experience with the team so far. One of the silver linings of today's scrubbed mission was that in addition to myself and NASA OIB Project Manager John Woods, we also had Mission Scientist John Sonntag and Project Scientist Nathan Kurtz online. We loved hearing all of your thoughtful questions and sharing the importance of what we do with you. The team genuinely enjoyed this part of the workday and I encourage all of you to keep those questions coming either through the "Ask the Team" comment boxes here on the blog or using Mission Tools Suite for Education online.
Coming Up
Some deliverables that you should look forward to based on your questions include the following:
- Map of Land Ice vs. Sea Ice in the arctic
- FLIR Image showing surface temperatures near a lead and near pressure ridges
If there is anything else visually that you are curious about, let us know in the comments. In the meantime we will keep sharing preliminary 2016 data over these regions as we continue mapping and post-expedition we'll do some exercises to compare those data sets with previous years!
Today's Post Brought to you by Shoemaker Elementary![Images will be posted shortly!]
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