Permafrost observation was conducted on Monday Oct. 5.  This was accomplished by swapping the radar pods back at Palmdale last Friday and conducting an engineering/calibration flight on Saturday to certify the L-band radar aboard NASA992.  

While in Alaska with the L-band radar, we were able to add an opportunistic observation of sea ice in Beaufort Sea (PI: Ben Holt) in coordination with the National Science Foundation Research Vessel Sikuliaq operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.  The objective of the flight is to utilize UAVSAR’s high system sensitivity to study young ice types within a backscatter range unavailable from space borne systems.