NASA campaign launched from Va to study polar ice

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (AP) - A NASA campaign launched from Virginia’s Eastern Shore is helping improve the understanding of changes to polar ice.

The space agency says researchers aboard NASA’s P-3 research aircraft left from the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island this week to go to Greenland to conduct surveys.

The mission is known as Operation IceBridge. Researchers will gather data on changes to polar ice and maintain continuity of measurements for NASA satellite missions.

The first part of the campaign will focus on sea ice in the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland and in the seas north of Alaska.

The remainder of the campaign will turn to measuring ice surface elevation and thickness at many of Greenland’s glaciers.

Survey flights are scheduled to continue through May 23.