Home > Missions > Latest Mission: AMISA
NSERC
AMISA

Measuring sea-ice loss and formation

Sea Ice

Scientists have been recording sea-ice loss and formation rates in the Arctic for decades. Recent studies have shown that the extent of sea-ice is shrinking as a result of increases in ocean temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. Increases in ocean temperatures all around the world will continue to have an impact on sea-ice cover in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, which could negatively impact ecosystems that rely on these icy environments.

Warmer oceans and associated melting sea ice would be expected to change northern hemisphere weather patterns, possibly creating new hazards for many of the world's people. Understanding how energy from the atmosphere warms the oceans, and then how ocean temperatures affect sea ice loss and formation, is essential to predicting future sea-ice loss rates.


AMISA DETAILS

DC-8 Takeoff
AMISA Mission Objectives
  1. Validate earth-observing satellite data of the atmosphere.
  2. Determine processes linking atmospheric properties to sea-ice loss and formation.
  3. Determine the type and size of aerosols in or near high-latitudes that contribute to atmospheric radiation of energy.
  4. Create sea-ice maps from aircraft and satellite images as well as profiles of the atmosphere.
  5. Validate and improve current algorithms used by NASA satellites (Aqua AMSR-E) to detect sea-ice.
  6. Evaluate sensor abilities to distinguish between melt ponds within sea-ice and sea-ice/ocean boundaries.
Arctic Mechanisms of Interaction between Surface and Atmosphere (AMISA)

The AMISA mission, led by Dr. Al Gasiewski and his team of engineers and students from the Center for Environmental Technology at the University of Colorado, along with mission scientist Dr. Ola Persson of NOAA and the University of Colorado/CIRES, will take advantage of the NASA DC-8 platform and its ability to simultaneously take several different types of atmospheric and surface measurements using both remote and in situ sensing instruments. These measurements will allow scientists to better understand the atmospheric processes leading to Arctic cloud formation and how clouds influence the annual freeze-up of the Earth's polar ice cap. The measurements will also help improve the accuracy of NASA satellite images of Arctic sea-ice coverage using the long range mapping capabilities of the DC-8.

Airborne measurements will be taken during five data flights of the NASA DC-8 out of Kiruna, Sweden during a period from August 11-27, 2008. Participants in this mission include scientists from NASA, NOAA, the University of North Dakota, the University of Colorado, the University of Leeds and the University of Stockholm, Sweden. Funding for this mission is provided by NASA. The AMISA mission is an International Polar Year (IPY) project organized in conjunction with a related Swedish IPY project, the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS).

Measurements taken during AMISA will focus on: A) the structure and dynamics of the Arctic atmosphere and surface sea ice features, B) the testing and validating of NASA satellite data, and C) the sampling of cloud microphysical properties and atmospheric aerosol particles and their size distributions.

AMISA DC-8 FLIGHT REPORTS

Dates Flight Reports
07/31/2008 Flight #1 (Check flight)
08/08/2008 Flight #2 (Transit/science flight)
08/13/2008 Flight #3 (Science flight)
08/15/2008 Flight #4 (Science flight)
08/22/2008 Flight #5 (Science flight)
08/23/2008 Flight #6 (Science flight)
08/25/2008 Flight #7 (Science flight)
PAYLOAD

Instrument Description Observables
Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR) Multiband polarimteric radiometric imaging system; Airborne AMSR-E equivalent High-resolution sea ice mapping; cloud cover; integrated water vapor
Dual-channel radiometer (DCR) 21/31 GHz, up/down-looking Integrated water vapor & cloud liquid water above/below aircraft
Scanning Low Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SLFMR) L-band salinity mapping L-band brightness; mapped salinity with ~5 ppt precision for lead/meltpond discrimination
Cloud, aerosol, and precipitation spectrometer (CAPS) From Droplet Measurements Technology Cloud droplet and ice particle spectra, liquid water content, droplet/ice discrimination
Expendable digital dropsondes Yankee Technology Sub-aircraft profiles of temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind
OAT Rosemount probe Outside air temperature adjusted for Mach number Air temperature
Solar flux pyranometers (SFPs) Hemispheric integrating thermopile irradiance sensors Up and down-welling shortwave fluxes
Volatile Aerosol Concentration and Composition (VACC) University of Leeds' system Aerosol number concentration spectra and aerosol composition
LINKS
Copyright © 2006-2008 National Suborbital Education & Research Center (NSERC). All rights reserved.