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operation icebridge

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you may know it from the beautiful

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photos that pop up in your feed but did

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you know that icebridge is the largest

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polar airborne survey of its kind

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icebridge was designed to study annual

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changes in the thickness of sea ice

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glaciers and ice sheets

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as well as bridge the data gap between

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the isat and icesat-2 polar observing

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satellites

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between 2009 and 2019 icebridge flew

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over a thousand scientific missions

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gathering data that has redefined our

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understanding of the cryosphere

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so let's take a look back at some of the

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one of the first steps to measure sea

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ice thickness is to get a handle on the

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amount of snow that accumulates on top

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of it

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the icebridge team pioneered the use of

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a snow radar instrument to gather the

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first widespread data set of snow

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thickness on top of both arctic and

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to land the point at which a glacier

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begins to float is called a grounding

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line and it's a very challenging place

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to measure ice thickness

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using two instruments a radar sounder

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and a gravimeter the icebridge team was

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able to survey hundreds of these complex

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transition zones

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enhancing scientists understanding of

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the rapid changes in glacier behavior

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in 2011 nasa scientists discovered a 19

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mile long crack across the pine island

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glacier one of the fastest retreating

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glaciers in antarctica

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the crack measured 260 feet wide and 195

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feet deep when it was observed

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throughout the mission icebridge was

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able to map rifts in ice shelves prior

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to major calving events

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and while these events are part of a

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natural cycle

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icebridge's observations helped

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scientists better record the changes in

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calving frequency and model how they may

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the motion of the antarctic ice sheet

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the largest ice sheet in the world is

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heavily influenced by the topography of

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the bedrock underneath

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in 2013

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the british antarctic survey used over

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25 million measurements collected by

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icebridge and other projects to develop

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a 3d map of antarctica's bedrock

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topography

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called bedmap2 it provided unprecedented

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detail of how the continent's bedrock

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data collected by icebridge enabled many

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discoveries in the arctic as well

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a team from the university of bristol

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used icebridge's radar data along with

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other data sets to uncover a 400 mile

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long canyon buried under nearly two

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miles of ice

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this hidden canyon is longer than any

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other known on earth it provides a

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critical clue to modeling how melting

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using ice penetrating radar data

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collected by icebridge scientists were

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able to build the first ever age map of

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the layers deep inside the greenland ice

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sheet

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for the first time scientists can

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navigate the history of greenland's ice

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layers extending previously collected

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ice cores to better understand the ice

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sheets history and help build models of

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an international team of scientists used

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decades of nasa data to uncover a

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massive impact crater hiding beneath the

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hiawatha glacier in northwest greenland

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at roughly a thousand feet deep and more

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than 19 miles wide it is potentially one

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of the youngest large impact craters on

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two

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one

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mark on the overpass zero four three

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five three five zero

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ice was bridged on april 8 2019 with a

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direct under flight of the isat2

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satellite over arctic sea ice

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for the first time both isat-2 and

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icebridge would be taking the same

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elevation measurements over the same ice

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these mirrored measurements were

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critical in validating the satellite's

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instruments and continue the legacy of

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icebridge after the mission was

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over the course of its 11-year mission

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icebridge completed 1056 scientific

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flights and provided a wellspring of

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data that fueled the publication of more

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than 660 papers and counting

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the mission provided new insight into

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the processes driving the changes in the

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cryosphere