NASA Continues Efforts To Monitor Arctic Ice Loss With Research Flights Over Greenland and Canada

PITUFFIK, GREENLAND - MARCH 25: Snow blows near Thule Air Base on March 25, 2017 in Pituffik, Greenland. NASA's Operation IceBridge is flying research missions out of Thule Air Base and other Arctic locations during their annual Arctic spring campaign. Thule Air Base is the U.S. military's northernmost base located some 750 miles above the Arctic Circle. NASA's Operation IceBridge has been studying how polar ice has evolved over the past nine years and is currently flying a set of eight-hour research flights over ice sheets and the Arctic Ocean to monitor Arctic ice loss aboard a retrofitted 1966 Lockheed P-3 aircraft. According to NASA scientists and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), sea ice in the Arctic appears to have reached its lowest maximum wintertime extent ever recorded on March 7. Scientists have said the Arctic has been one of the regions hardest hit by climate change. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)