Tag: Frearson

Inside the DC-8: Instrument Test Flight

 

From: Nick Frearson, Gravimeter Instrument Team, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

 

The flight engineer ticks off instruments over the intercom. “LVIS, ready.” “Gravity, ready.” “DACOM, ready.”

 

We are about to take the DC-8 on its first test flight before Antarctica. The pilots, clipped and professional, have just described the day’s flight plans and the plane is bustling with people making last-minute adjustments.

 

 

Suddenly we are ready to go. The city of Palmdale, Calif., drops away as the plane climbs and circles. The dried up lake bed that is home to Dryden and Edwards Air Force Base spreads out below, giving us a Google-Earth view of the area.

 

We head west over the hills and Los Angeles, indistinct through the haze, and out over the Pacific Ocean. The gravimeter in front of me and Stefan purrs quietly. The aim of the flight is to test and calibrate the laser altimeter – the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) – which will measure the surface elevation of the ice sheet.

 

At 28,000 feet we perform a series of maneuvers to sweep the laser beam back and forth beneath the aircraft. The LVIS engineer is talking to the flight engineer over the intercom while he aligns the instrument. I can hear static, whistles and pops over their voices but nothing that appears to be interfering with our instruments.

 

To my left an instrument samples the air as we fly along. Melissa, who built the equipment a few days ago, watches pressure gauges and tweaks the dials. Outside, I can see Catalina Island surrounded by clear water. The LVIS engineer announces that he is happy with the laser so we turn for home.

 

We pass over the smog of L.A., mountains still scarred from the recent forest fires, and the Mojave Desert, where the clear air allows you to see for miles. Back on the ground we head for flight debrief.

 

Sean downloads the gravity and GPS data that will tell us how well the gravimeter performed. First indications are looking good.

 

Thinking on Your Feet on the Ice

 

From: Nick Frearson, Gravimeter Instrument Team, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

 

Hi there! I’m senior engineer at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, and my role in Operation Ice Bridge is to work with the gravimeter. This instrument can see beneath ice sheets into the water and bedrock below to reveal the hidden shape of this part of the ice sheet – critical information for predicting how ice sheets will change as the climate warms.

 

I see the importance of the poles as an indicator of change. There you can see how sensitive the environment is and how easy it is to upset its delicate balance. Changes to the ice sheets at the poles will change sea levels and climate around the world.

 

I have traveled to both poles and like the wildlife, solitude and shear expansiveness of these amazing places that remind me constantly of how fragile life is. I enjoy thinking on my feet and solving problems with limited resources — so different from our normal civilized lives.

 

On my last trip to Antarctica, we mapped a huge and remote ice-covered mountain range in the middle of the continent, trying to understand how and when the ice sheets formed. Inside my tent I could hear the constant whispering of the wind over the snow, mixed with the music of Radiohead, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Imogen Heap, among many others.

 

I miss my friends when I’m away. Two summers ago, I went to Canada’s Ellesmere Island with my good colleague, Michael Studinger, to test gravity instruments near the North Pole. The island is stunning with windswept hillsides leading down to frozen fjords. I walked for miles across the island, observing Musk Ox and wolves go about their lives. Back at camp, I enjoyed listening to other scientists talk about their travels.

 

I hope that you enjoy reading about our exploits flying over Antarctica as much as I’ll enjoy taking part in them.

 

 

Nick Frearson from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

“at home in his snow hole near Mount Erebus,

Antarctica, Christmas 2008.”