Brian Dunbar

Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

March 18, 1992
(Phone: 202/453-1547)

Keith Koehler
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.
(Phone: 804/824-1579)

RELEASE: 92-38

NASA TO MEASURE ARCTIC SEA ICE AND GREENLAND POLAR

GLACIERS

NASA researchers will use airborne instruments to measure

Arctic sea ice and Greenland polar glaciers in April 1992,
aiding scientists in the study of global climate changes.

Researchers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's

Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., will use
laser-ranging instruments aboard the Wallops P-3B (HL) Orion
aircraft to measure the sea ice above the water and the polar
glacier elevations. The airborne laser systems are capable of
measuring elevations to an accuracy within 1 to 1-and-a-half
inches.

The data gathered on the sea ice will be compared to

previous studies and used to develop a baseline for future
studies, according to Bill Krabill, Principal Investigator from
Wallops. The Greenland glacier measurements will be compared to
data gathered during a similar study by Wallops in 1991 and with
data from the European Space Agency's European Earth Resources
Satellite.

Scientists are interested in developing accurate

measurements of sea ice and glaciers because changes in these
systems may indicate trends in world climate. Appreciable
changes in these ice systems, such as increased melting, could
directly affect global climate.

The researchers will leave Wallops on April 6 and are

expected to return in late April. They will base their Arctic
sea ice flights from Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks,
Alaska, and Longyearbyen, Vest Spitsbergen, a Norwegian island.
The sea ice measurements will be taken along flight lines from
the bases of operation toward the North Pole.

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The principal instrument on the P-3B (HL) aircraft is the

Airborne Oceanographic Lidar (AOL). The AOL measures the time
it takes for a laser pulse to reach the ice and return to the
aircraft. Time variations will occur because of changes in the
terrain and the aircraft's altitude. Using the Global
Positioning System, a Defense Department satellite system that
allows aircraft or ships to precisely determine their locations,
researchers will derive the elevations of the sea ice relative
to the mean sea level and the elevations of the Greenland
glaciers.

Krabill said that by knowing the thickness of the ice above

the sea, researchers can infer the amount of ice below the sea
and obtain a measurement of the total ice mass. He noted that
the researchers may conduct reflights over the same flight paths
in future years to gather follow-up data.

The program is conducted under the Earth Sciences

Directorate of NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.

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Editors Note: Video from the 1991 Greenland Polar Glacier study
is available to accompany this release by contacting the Wallops
Public Affairs Office at 804/824-1584 or 804/824-1579.