NASA Operation IceBridge: Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Surface Temperature and Elevation

NASA's Operation IceBridge data contains surface temperature measurements of Arctic and Antarctic sea and land ice acquired by a Heitronics KT19.85 Series II Infrared Radiation Pyrometer. The dataset also includes spot elevation measurements of Greenland and polar sea ice acquired using the NASA Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) 4CT3 narrow scan instrumentation. Data were collected as part of funded aircraft survey campaigns operated by the Wallops Flight Facility.

Use Cases

• Modeling ice sheet mass balance based on surface temperature and elevation data.
• Analyzing seasonal and interannual changes in polar ice based on airborne survey data.
• Calibrating satellite-based ice measurements based on high-resolution spot elevation data.
• Studying the relationship between surface temperature and ice elevation in polar regions.

Strengths

• Data originates from NASA's Operation IceBridge, a major funded airborne survey campaign.
• Includes measurements from two specialized instruments: a pyrometer for temperature and a topographic mapper for elevation.
• Covers key polar regions: Arctic, Antarctic, and Greenland sea and land ice.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

NASA Operation IceBridge, Wallops Flight Facility

Collection Method

Airborne surveys using Heitronics KT19.85 Series II pyrometer and NASA Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) 4CT3.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated date is unknown.

Geography

Arctic, Antarctic, Greenland sea ice and land ice