On April 19, IceBridge's 23rd flight surveyed the centerline of Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier, Helheim Glacier, and several branches of Midgard Glacier. Midgard Glacier (above) has changed rapidly in recent years, making it of particular interest to researchers.
The P-3 crew navigated through clouds and moderate turbulence on April 18 to reach the fjords in southeast Greenland. A post-flight weather brief confirmed that the southeast was the clearest region and only viable site for a science flight. On April 16, the high priority targets in the southeast were socked in. So, teams re-flew the grid pattern over Jakobshavn to evaluate the repeatability of the magnetic measurements, and again over Russell Glacier to collect more data for a three-dimensional image of the bedrock beneath the glacier.
April 15 was a key day for IceBridge. Coordination with the European Space Agency (ESA) resulted in a successful overflight of a ground-based calibration campaign called CRYOVEX. Measurements from the air and ground will be used to calibrate and validate measurements from NASA ESA's ice-observing CryoSat-2 satellite. The same day marked the start of the deployment of a high-altitude lidar instrument on the B200 aircraft -- the first time that IceBridge has simultaneously operated two NASA planes.
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