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The Scientific Legacy of NASA’s Operation IceBridgeThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Operation IceBridge (OIB) was a 13-year (2009–2021) airborne mission to survey land and sea ice across the Arctic, Antarctic, and Alaska. Here, we review OIB’s goals, instruments, campaigns, key scientific results, and implications for future investigations of the cryosphere. OIB’s primary goal was to use airborne laser altimetry to bridge the gap in fine-resolution elevation measurements of ice from space between the conclusion of NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat; 2003–2009) and its follow-on, ICESat-2 (launched 2018). Additional scientific requirements were intended to contextualize observed elevation changes using a multisensor suite of radar sounders, gravimeters, magnetometers, and cameras. Using 15 different aircraft, OIB conducted 968 science flights, of which 42% were repeat surveys of land ice, 42% were surveys of previously unmapped terrain across the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, Arctic ice caps, and Alaskan glaciers, and 16% were surveys of sea ice. The combination of an expansive instrument suite and breadth of surveys enabled numerous fundamental advances in our understanding of the Earth’s cryosphere. For land ice, OIB dramatically improved knowledge of interannual outlet-glacier variability, ice-sheet, and outlet-glacier thicknesses, snowfall rates on ice sheets, fjord and sub-ice-shelf bathymetry, and ice-sheet hydrology. Unanticipated discoveries included a reliable method for constraining the thickness within difficult-to-sound incised troughs beneath ice sheets, the extent of the firn aquifer within the Greenland Ice Sheet, the vulnerability of many Greenland and Antarctic outlet glaciers to ocean-driven melting at their grounding zones, and the dominance of surface-melt-driven mass loss of Alaskan glaciers. For sea ice, OIB significantly advanced our understanding of spatiotemporal variability in sea ice freeboard and its snow cover, especially through combined analysis of fine-resolution altimetry, visible imagery, and snow radar measurements of the overlying snow thickness. Such analyses led to the unanticipated discovery of an interdecadal decrease in snow thickness on Arctic sea ice and numerous opportunities to validate sea ice freeboards from satellite radar altimetry. While many of its data sets have yet to be fully explored, OIB’s scientific legacy has already demonstrated the value of sustained investment in reliable airborne platforms, airborne instrument development, interagency and international collaboration, and open and rapid data access to advance our understanding of Earth’s remote polar regions and their role in the Earth system.
Document ID
20210015113
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Accepted Manuscript (Version with final changes)
Authors
Joseph A. MacGregor ORCID
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Linette N. Boisvert ORCID
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Brooke Medley ORCID
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Alek A. Petty ORCID
(University of Maryland, College Park College Park, Maryland, United States)
Jeremy P. Harbeck
(Adnet Systems (United States) Bethesda, Maryland, United States)
Robin E. Bell ORCID
(Columbia University New York, New York, United States)
J. Bryan Blair
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth ORCID
(University of Washington Seattle, Washington, United States)
Ellen M. Buckley
(University of Maryland, College Park College Park, Maryland, United States)
Michael S. Christofferson ORCID
(University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona, United States)
James R. Cochran ORCID
(Columbia University New York, New York, United States)
Beáta M. Csathó
(University at Buffalo, State University of New York Buffalo, New York, United States)
Eugenia L. De Marco
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Roseanne T. Dominguez
(Universities Space Research Association Columbia, Maryland, United States)
Mark A. Fahnestock ORCID
(University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks, Alaska, United States)
Sinead L. Farrell ORCID
(University of Maryland, College Park College Park, Maryland, United States)
S. Prasad Gogineni
(University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States)
Jamin S. Greenbaum ORCID
(University of California, San Diego San Diego, California, United States)
Christy M. Hansen
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Michelle A. Hofton
(University of Maryland, College Park College Park, Maryland, United States)
John W. Holt
(University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona, United States)
Kenneth C. Jezek
(The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio, United States)
Lora S. Koenig ORCID
(University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, Colorado, United States)
Nathan T. Kurtz
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Ronald Kwok ORCID
(Jet Propulsion Lab La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States)
Christopher F. Larsen
(University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks, Alaska, United States)
Carlton J. Leuschen
(Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets Lawrence, Kansas, United States)
Caitlin D. Locke ORCID
(Columbia University New York, New York, United States)
Serdar S Manizade
(Science Systems and Applications (United States) Lanham, Maryland, United States)
Seelye Martin
(University of Washington Seattle, Washington, United States)
Thomas A. Neumann
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Sophie M. J. Nowicki ORCID
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
John D. Paden ORCID
(University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas, United States)
Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge
(University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks, Alaska, United States)
Eric J. Rignot ORCID
(Jet Propulsion Lab La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States)
Fernando Rodriguez-Morales ORCID
(Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets Lawrence, Kansas, United States)
Matthew R. Siegfried ORCID
(Colorado School of Mines Golden, Colorado, United States)
Benjamin E. Smith ORCID
(University of Washington Seattle, Washington, United States)
John G. Sonntag ORCID
(Bay Area Environmental Research Institute Petaluma, California, United States)
Michael Studinger ORCID
(Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, United States)
Kirsty J. Tinto ORCID
(Columbia University New York, New York, United States)
Martin Truffer ORCID
(University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks, Alaska, United States)
Thomas P. Wagner ORCID
(National Aeronautics and Space Administration Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States)
John E. Woods
(Office of Naval Research London, United Kingdom)
Duncan Young ORCID
(The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas, United States)
James K. Yungel
(Science Systems and Applications (United States) Lanham, Maryland, United States)
Date Acquired
May 5, 2021
Publication Date
May 3, 2021
Publication Information
Publication: Reviews of Geophysics
Publisher: American Geophysical Union / Wiley
Volume: 59
Issue: 2
Issue Publication Date: June 1, 2021
ISSN: 8755-1209
e-ISSN: 1944-9208
Subject Category
Geophysics
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Funding Number(s)
WBS: 769134.02.04.03.27
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX17AE79A
CONTRACT_GRANT: 80GSFC17C0003
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX12AD05A
CONTRACT_GRANT: 80NSSC20K0637
CONTRACT_GRANT: 80NSSC18K0943
CONTRACT_GRANT: 80NM0018D0004P00002
CONTRACT_GRANT: 80GSFC20C0044
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Portions of document may include copyright protected material.
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