Denis Steele and Tim Williams are the two pilots stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska with NASA at Fort Wainwright for the summer. Dennis and his fellow pilot are to fly 48 hours over Alaska and the Arctic during their stay.
The pilots fly 20 kilometers above sea level which excludes them from over 90% of the Earth’s atmosphere and well above the troposphere. Interestingly the aircraft flown by the two pilots is basically a U-2 spy plane adjusted for non-military work. The U2 was designed in service of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1955 to take pictures of Soviet installations during the Cold War. However the US pilot Francis Gary was shot by the Soviet Union. The US initially attempted to cover the story by claiming that the aircraft belonged to NASA and was being used to monitor weather. To make it sound legit the US planted NASA’s logos on the plane and released a picture of the plane to establish credibility. In fact, this incident occurred in the 60’s and NASA only began using the U-2s by 1971.
The air craft which Dennis and Tim now fly is called ER-2 and is one of the two aircrafts NASA uses for high altitude imaging. The aircraft uses a laser which interacts with the frozen surface of the Earth. It detects the relative variations in the surface of the ice and is recording data so that it can be used to help scientists develop algorithms for a device with a similar purpose to be carried on a satellite which is called ICESAT-2.
The data recorded by this satellite will add to its predecessor ICESAT which recorded data from about 2003 to 2009. Its essential purpose is to assess the state of the ice and determine changes in weather patterns on Earth. The combined data from these missions will be used to assess the effect of the melting polar ice on the sea level rise and the general effect of the ice melt on the weather. The team will fly mission till August 1 of this year.
