U.S. Airmen begin Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica

STRATTON NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.Y., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The New York Air National Guard's ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules aircraft and aircrew departed for McMurdo Station in Antarctica for Operation Deep Freeze.

The operation is the military part of the U.S. government's Antarctic Program, managed by the National Science Foundation. Deep Freeze is a joint service Defense Support to Civilian Authorities program for the National Science Foundation's Antarctic research projects.

The U.S. Air Force mission for Operation Deep Freeze will run through February 2016. Seven LC-130 "Skibird" aircraft and 500 Airmen are expected to deploy as part of the 109th Airlift Wing's 28th season supporting Antarctic research. The Air Force has 330 planned missions.

"The weather is the biggest challenge so you watch that weather very closely, and from there you do your mission," said 109th Operations Group commander Lt. Col. Christian Sander in a statement.

Research will include IcePod missions, which are expected to increase from the previous season of Operation Deep Freeze. The IcePod is an electronic pad externally mounted on the LC-130 to provide an imaging system measuring the ice bed, and the detail beneath the surface. Scientists have used the IcePod to obseve changes in polar ice sheets and glaciers.

IcePod missions were flown for the first time last season, and were deemed by researchers to be the biggest successes in the missions performed there.