NASA Continues to Advance International Polar Year Science

WASHINGTON, March 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Although the International
Polar Year officially came to a close in February, NASA is continuing to push
the frontiers of polar science from space, the air and the surface of ice.

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On Monday, NASA embarks on the first of two airborne field campaigns in the
Arctic to take a closer look at Greenland and Iceland ice sheets and the
region's sea ice and glaciers. From space, NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land
Elevation Satellite, known as ICESat, is completing a seasonal survey of the
world's ice sheets to gauge how and where they are changing. And later in
2009, NASA scientists will return to Antarctica to drill into the massive Pine
Island Glacier.

The two-year International Polar Year focused science and education activities
on Earth's remote polar regions and their connections to the rest of the Earth
system. The event marked the 125th anniversary of the first polar year and the
50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year. Scientists from more
than 60 nations participated, including researchers funded by NASA and other
U.S. agencies.

The International Polar Year prompted many research projects and innovative
public outreach programs. Examples of ongoing projects NASA and its partners
sponsor are:

NASA SATELLITE AND PLANE FLY IN TANDEM OVER GREENLAND ICE SHEET
NASA's P-3B aircraft takes off March 30 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in
Wallops Island, Va., to begin a month-long Arctic research mission. Its main
objective is to map the changing thickness of the Greenland ice sheet in
tandem with NASA's ICESat. Because the ICESat mission has surpassed its
expected lifetime, NASA is ensuring it can maintain the continuity of this ice
sheet data record by taking airborne measurements nearly simultaneously with
measurements from the spacecraft. NASA's William Krabill from Wallops Flight
Facility, an expert at Greenland airborne ice sheet mapping, is leading the
effort, dubbed "Operation Ice Bridge." For 2009, the P-3B is outfitted with an
expanded array of instruments.

NEW AIRBORNE RADAR TO PEER INSIDE ICE SHEETS AND GLACIERS
A team of NASA scientists begin an airborne campaign this spring to understand
better how Arctic ice is changing and assess the impacts of climate change.
During the seven-week Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar
field campaign to Greenland and Iceland, scientists will use two new
ice-penetrating radars flying aboard a modified NASA Gulfstream III aircraft.
Data will provide new insights into our understanding of the flow of glaciers
and ice streams while also serving as a test bed for future satellite
missions. Scott Hensley of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
leads the campaign.

GLOBAL TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEY OF ICE SHEETS BEGINS SIXTH YEAR
NASA's polar-orbiting ICESat spacecraft is wrapping up its latest month-long
campaign to map Earth's changing ice sheets and polar sea ice. The new data
from ICESat's laser-pulsing instrument adds another year to a detailed record
of changes in the mass of ice sheets, the thickness of sea ice, and the speed
of glacier motion at the ice sheet margins. Ron Kwok of NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and a team of researchers are using ICESat data to estimate how
much Arctic sea ice has been lost in recent years.

RESEARCHERS POISED TO RETURN TO PINE ISLAND GLACIER
Robert Bindschadler of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and
colleagues have revised their plans to drill through Antarctica's isolated
Pine Island Glacier and take the first-ever look underneath the glacier at how
the ocean and the ice interact. The researchers were thwarted in their first
attempt during the 2007-2008 field season because of concerns about the safety
of landing aircraft on the remote glacier. The new plan calls for helicopter
flights to establish a base camp later this year.

INTERNATIONAL TEAM WORKING TO CALCULATE ANTARCTIC DRAINAGE
For the first time, a group of researchers from seven countries are
calculating exactly how much ice is flowing off the Antarctic Ice Sheet and
into the ocean. This fundamental measurement -- how much ice is being lost at
the edges of the ice sheet -- will help researchers improve our knowledge of
the changing volume of ice on the continent. Using multiple satellite data
sets, groups from seven countries are applying a new analysis method to data
from three satellites to account for all ice loss. Robert Bindschadler of
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is leading NASA's contribution to this
international effort.

'FROZEN' OPENS ON SCIENCE ON A SPHERE THEATRES
NASA's newest production for the "Science on a Sphere" projection system
debuted on March 27 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Wallops Flight
Facility. "Frozen," a 12-minute, narrated feature, explores Earth's changing
ice and snow cover. Playing on nearly 30 screens around the world, "Frozen"
will be coming soon to a museum near you.

For more information about NASA's International Polar Year projects, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ipy

SOURCE NASA

Steve Cole of NASA Headquarters, Washington, +1-202-358-0918,
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov