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I think we've all had pinch-me moments on a regular basis

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looking out the window of a plane.

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It's really being in the plane

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and seeing something you study

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I could stare out that window forever, so I'm going to miss that a lot

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IceBridge started with what seemed like a humble goal

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to bridge a data gap that NASA could see coming between two satellites

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It’s bittersweet in the sense that we're

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wrapping up what is undoubtedly going to be viewed as one of the

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most consequential airborne campaigns that NASA has ever done.

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IceBridge is a fantastic mission.

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They've collected so much data, I mean

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Terabytes and terabytes and terabytes of data

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Basically two campaigns a year, one in the Arctic, one in the Antarctic.

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There's a lot of data there and there's still so much to do with it.

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It's difficult to top Operation IceBridge.

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It’s a huge undertaking, it involves hundreds of people

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over the course of this decade

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and it's a great example of teamwork.

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We, as a project, have made

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so many contributions to the field of cryospheric science

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over the last ten years.

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I think it's exceeded beyond, certainly beyond my wildest dreams

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and I think beyond pretty much anyone’s wildest dreams.

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As a none scientist, it’s really fun to be on a plane

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with all these scientists that are directly studying the ice

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that we’re flying over

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and to see how none of them get used to just,

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looking out the window.

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Some of our guys that have been doing this for 25 years

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are the first to be out the window with a camera.

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NASA launched its new satellite, ICESat-2 in September of last year

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and we're actually doing coordinated under-flights with the satellite and IceBridge

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So we're going to be collecting cocincedent data

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that will help basically tell us how good of a job ICESat-2 is doing

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And help improve the science that can come out of it.

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A whole lot of the things have to come together

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as you can imagine to

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coordinate a DC-8 and a spacecraft flying overhead.

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To find out that it did work, was really exciting.

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We had numerous flights when we exactly under flew the satellite

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at the exact same time.

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When we were there, we were feeling pretty good

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and it turned out we were right.

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With the launch of ICESat-2, I think a lot people

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are looking forward to starting to use this data

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and seeing what new things we can do combining ICESat-2

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with sort of the legacy IceBridge data exists out there

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because the one thing I do know is there's a lot of IceBridge data

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and there's still so much to do with all of it.

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We went with a relatively straight forward goal

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to repeat a series of flights in fast-changing areas.

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And what we uncovered is so much more than that.

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We revealed the cryosphere to the world.

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I would not be surprised if most people on the team

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said this was a bittersweet moment.

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For a lot of people, this is what defined their career.

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Getting to get out there in the world and working with a diverse group of people

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That's..that's hugely satisfying and I'm certainly never going to forget that.

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I think it was easy for me to give it my all

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because this team was just so amazing

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and when you have a great team

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it just makes my job easier as a project manager.

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And I just think it's crazy how like,

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we call come from different backgrounds, everyone on the IceBridge team

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and we all have different life experiences

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and we’re all good at different parts and different personalities

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But for some reason, we all just come together and work

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I don’t know how, it just seems so easy.

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We're practically a family at this point.

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Many of us have spent many months per year together

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and have done so for many years.

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And so we utterly depend on each other.

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I call it IceBridge family, personally.

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This team definitely is like family.

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And it’s...it's just great.

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How do you not be proud of something like that.

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But, having said that

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I think the way this team works together in the field

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it genuinely warms the heart.

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You know, it’s a great thing behold.

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