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For the second year in a row, NASA researchers (Kelly Brunt and Adam Greeley) had to withstand low temperatures, high winds and high altitude to make another crossing at 88 degrees south. The 470-mile expedition in one of the world's driest landscapes provides the best way to assess the accuracy of the data collected in the space by the ice cloud and the terrestrial altitude satellite-2 (ICESat-2). The researchers drove crawler vehicles called PistenBullys, which were equipped with a GPS to collect extremely accurate elevation data over 88 degrees south, where the ICESat-2 orbits converge. These data were then used to make direct comparisons with ICESat-2 elevation data. With a rapid-ignition laser instrument, ICESat-2 measures the altitude of the ice caps and tracks their evolution over time. Even small amounts of melt in areas as large as Greenland or Antarctica can result in large amounts of meltwater contributing to sea level rise. To help document this ICESAT-2's height change measurements will have a precision of less than an inch – a truth in the field, in part, with efforts like this Antarctic campaign. The crossing was funded by NASA, but received significant logistical support from the Polar Programs Office of the National Science Foundation. Music: "Watch the Evolution", "Formulas and Equations", Killer Tracks Music A complete transcription is available.
This video is in the public domain and can be downloaded from Scientific Visualization Studio at http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13206.
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Ryan Fitzgibbons
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