MABEL: Flying on a high-altitude aircraft at the brink of space, the MABEL instrument is helping scientists to simulate measurements from NASA’s next ice-observing satellite, ICESat-2. Palmdale, Calif. – MABEL had a very successful second flight on March 24! Taking off from NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., we flew a second flight over the […]
MABEL flies aboard NASA’s ER-2, which is a research version of the Air Force’s U2 reconnaissance aircraft. MABEL specifically flies in the nose cone of the ER-2. The ER-2 is special because it flies at a very high altitude. MABEL’s data is collected at approximately 65,000 feet above sea level, putting the instrument above much […]
March 25, 2011 This past Tuesday (3/22), MABEL had her first successful flight of 2011! After just a day of hooking MABEL up to the aircraft and checking out her systems (image below), we flew the instrument on what we consider to be a ‘shakedown’ mission. We flew a route local to the Dryden Flight Research […]
March 19, 2011 With three sea ice flights successfully behind us, and the airport being closed on the weekend, we had a day off from operations, and took advantage of the great activities that are coordinated by the Community Center here at Thule AFB. Today’s trip was a hike to the Ice Cap. About two […]
March 18, 2011 Today we flew again and went right by the North Pole! The NASA P-3 went 2 degrees to the left of it, if you picture looking straight down on top of earth! The flights are usually about 7-8 hour missions so I woke up early and went to breakfast. After we got […]
March 24, 2011 Greetings from Palmdale, California. Our Goddard-based team is at Dryden Flight Research Center testing an instrument named MABEL, which stands for “Multiple Altimeter Beam Experimental Lidar”. MABEL is an ICESat-2 simulator, which we fly the instrument at high altitudes over various terrain to test the satellite’s measurement concept. We were out here […]
March 17, 2011 Another early morning wake up, with a quick check of the weather. I went to bed last night with snow falling, and not so promising satellite pictures showing a fairly significant storm system off to our west. I was thinking that we would be cancelled due to weather, but woke up to […]
March 16, 2011 Today was the day I had been waiting for all week. It was the first flight day of the IceBridge operation out of Thule, Greenland. Flying today had a special meaning to me for a few different reasons. I recently was selected to become a Navy pilot, which is a goal I […]
March 16, 2011 My alarm clock was set for 5:30 this morning to wake up, shower, get some breakfast and be at the hanger no later than 7 a.m. for an 8 a.m. take off. The weather was good for our target area north of the Canadian archipelago (islands), to survey the sea ice beneath […]
Stargazers are in for a big treat this weekend! On Mar. 19 the full moon will brighten the night sky as the biggest full moon seen in almost two decades. The moon will be at perigee, its closest point to Earth — only 221,565 miles (356,575 km) away. The moon’s orbit around Earth is not circular — …
