Operation IceBridge Tracks over the Helheim Glacier in Greenland
Visualizations by
Greg Shirah
Released on August 31, 2016
Operation Ice Bridge (OIB) has been flying annual airborne missions over the Helheim Glacier in Greenland since 1997. These missions record the elevation of the glacier along a long, thin track near the middle of the glacier. This record of heights helps scientists see how the glacier has changed over the years.
This visualization shows OIB tracks from each year in sequence. The camera then moves to the side to compare the ice profiles on a graph. The track profiles are shown to scale (i.e., no exaggeration) until they are compared on the graph where they are exaggerated 10 times to help see the changes.
GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation:
Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0