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Customers at the Top of the World

NASA's Operation Ice Bridge imaged polar ice in unprecedented detail to better understand the global climate system. Headwall Co-Aligned VNIR-SWIR sensors were utilized for airborne hyperspectral imaging, operating at temperatures well below normal operating conditions.
James Yungel

BLAST FROM THE PAST! Originally posted in April 2019: NASA’s Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) imaged the Earth’s polar ice in unprecedented detail to better understand processes that connect the polar regions with the global climate system.

Douglas DC-8, GulfStream V, Lockheed Martin P-3, and de Havilland Twin Otter flights provided a multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of the Greenland and Antarctic ice.

Headwall Co-Aligned VNIR-SWIR sensors were utilized for hyperspectral imaging. These operate in temperatures well below normal operating conditions, and Headwall support personnel sometimes provided remote troubleshooting to personnel, who could be on satellite phone in flight.

OIB staff recently spent a “light” day at Thule Air Base with the P-3 aircraft on display at an aircraft show. Program Manager James (Jim) Yungel (in the red parka, above) sent us some photos he took during a Sunday walk around Thule, as well as some photos Jeremy Harbeck took on a Dundas Mountain hike. It was bright and sunny, but with temperatures from -17 ¬°C to -25 ¬°C.

Supraglacial lake observations using thermal imaging and spectra from a Headwall Nano-Hyperspec® VNIR sensor (left). Image from NASA Operation IceBridge Overview 2018.

Thanks to Jim Yungel, Program Manager, Wallops Island Remote Sensing.