Cresis Aerial Survey of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Initially, the CReSIS team will be working at McMurdo Station preparing and outfitting a Twin Otter airplane with equipment that will be used to conduct aerial radar surveys of glaciers at remote field camps. Being used as a platform for conducting the experiments, the airplane will be mounted with instruments that measure ice thickness, map ice layers, and conduct SAR-imaging-a form of radar that produces high-resolution maps of the ice surface.

In early December, after aircraft preparations have been completed, the team will travel to Byrd Camp, a remote camp on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, to conduct the aerial surveys. Each day, weather permitting, the team will take off, fly over area glaciers, and come back to camp. When they arrive back at camp, the team will download and process the data that was collected by the instruments.

Although many of the areas that will be surveyed have been largely undiscovered, the survey work will include flights over Thwaites Glacier (75.5°S 106.75°W). Part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Thwaites Glacier is one of the largest and most rapidly thinning glaciers in Antarctica.

At the core of CReSIS's work, the data collected during this project will be integrated with other research efforts and data to create a 3-D visualization of the ice sheet to model and assess the potential impacts of ice sheets to future sea level rise.