Laser Radar Animation

  • Released Monday, April 5, 2010
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Laser and radar instruments aboard NASA aircraft provide measurements of the snow and ice surface and down to the bedrock under the ice. Lasers, with a shorter wavelength, measure the surface elevation of the snow or ice to within a fraction of an inch. Radar instruments utilize a longer wavelength and can penetrate the ice to "see" below the surface, providing a profile of ice characteristics and also the shape of the bedrock. This information is critical for understanding how and why the world's biggest ice masses are changing.

This fly-through animation show the IceBridge DC-8 aircraft and instruments aboard.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Monday, April 5, 2010.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:54 PM EDT.

Tapes

This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:
  • Operation Ice Bridge (Greenland, Spring 2010) Video File 1 (ID: 2010017)
    Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 4:00AM
    Produced by - Richard Chen (NASA)