Page 6 - Aerotech News and Review, Sept. 21 2018

Final Delta II launch orbits NASA polar ice probe
by Peter W. Merlin
staff writer
Liftoff of a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Sept. 15 marked the end of an era for a workhorse launch vehicle and a significant leap forward for environmental science.
The booster — the last of its type — carried NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), a state-of-the-art climate observation probe. The spacecraft is equipped with the most advanced laser instrument of its kind to measure the average annual changes in Earth’s polar ice sheets.
The ICESat-2 mission extends and improves upon a 15-year effort by NASA to monitor changes in polar ice that began in 2003 with the first ICESat mission. In addition, NASA scientists began collecting data in 2009 with Operation IceBridge, an airborne research campaign that monitors the accelerating rate of change in polar ice.
The ICESat-2 spacecraft was built to carry a single instrument called the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System. A major technological leap, the ATLAS measures ice height by timing how long it takes individual light photons to travel from the spacecraft to Earth and back. Capturing 60,000 measurements every second, ATLAS will allow climate researchers to study ice surface elevation changes in unprecedented detail, discerning variations to within one centimeter. Using simple geometry, researchers will calculate volume from height and then convert volume into mass to determine how much ice is melting each year. Previous data revealed melting ice around the edges of Greenland and Antarctica, and the thinning of sea ice in the region. Annual runoff from hundreds of billions of tons of melting land and sea ice flows into the oceans, contributing to a worldwide rise in sea level.
“ICESat-2’s new observational technologies will advance our knowledge of how the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica con- tribute to sea level rise while also helping us understand the con- nection of sea ice loss to the global system,” said Thomas Wagner,
See LAUNCH, Page 7
Photograph by Peter W. Merlin
The final countdown - Liftoff of a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base,Calif., on Sept. 15 marked the end of an era for a workhorse launch vehicle.
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