To understand how different elements of Earth’s climate change over time, scientists must have a continuous record of data and observations, without large gaps. To maintain such a record of Earth’s changing ice cover, NASA’s Operation IceBridge puts multiple research aircraft in the field during two extended campaigns each year – one over Antarctica, one over Greenland – to gather data on glaciers, sea ice and ice sheets. The mission flies nearly identical patterns over the same targets year after year. The Greenland and Antarctica campaigns will continue until NASA’s 2016 launch of ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite), which follows the original ICESat mission that operated from 2003-2009, while IceBridge is the “bridge” between the two.
