NASA scientists are flying a modified P-3 Orion aircraft low over the Arctic Ocean, skimming just hundreds of feet above the ice to measure how fast it is thinning. The campaign, based out of Thule Air Base in Greenland, combines airborne sensors with satellite data to capture the most detailed picture yet of sea ice loss in a region warming four times faster than the global average.
What the instruments see that satellites miss
The plane carries a laser altimeter that bounces pulses off the ice to map its height with centimeter precision. A second instrument, a radar system, penetrates through snow to measure the ice thickness below. Together, they reveal not just how much ice is left, but how its structure is changing. Satellites can track the area covered by ice, but they cannot easily tell how thick it is or whether the ice is riddled with melt ponds and cracks. The airborne campaign fills that gap.
Why local communities and scientists are watching closely
The flights are part of NASA’s Arctic Radiation Cloud Aerosol Surface Interaction Experiment, or ARCSIX, which began in 2024 and returned for a second field season in 2025. Researchers are focusing on the Beaufort Sea and the central Arctic, where ice has become younger, thinner, and more vulnerable to summer melt. For Indigenous communities in Alaska and Canada, sea ice is a platform for hunting, travel, and cultural practices. Its decline disrupts food security and safety. For scientists, the data helps improve climate models that project future sea level rise and global weather patterns.
A shrinking lid on the ocean
Sea ice acts as a reflective lid on the Arctic Ocean. When it melts, darker ocean water absorbs more sunlight, which accelerates warming and further melt. This feedback loop is a major reason the Arctic is changing so rapidly. The NASA team is measuring how much sunlight the ice reflects versus how much the open ocean absorbs, a key variable in predicting how fast the ice will disappear in coming decades.
The campaign ends in September 2025, when the Arctic reaches its annual minimum ice extent. The data collected will be compared with satellite observations from NASA’s ICESat-2 and the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 to calibrate and validate space-based measurements. No single platform can tell the full story. By flying low and slow over the ice, NASA’s scientists are filling in the details that only a plane can reach.
