The CRISTAL project is a satellite experiment that will measure sea ice thickness in the polar regions of the Earth for the purpose of climate research. The project is a joint experiment between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). You can find out more about our satellite here:https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/cristal In preparation for the launch, my team would like to test our instruments in the regions around Cambridge Bay in April of 2026. We propose to fly an aircraft (Kenn Borek Basler) with instruments that are similar to the instruments we will fly on the satellite. The aircraft will take measurements over the sea ice helping us develop algorithms to correctly estimate sea ice thickness. We will be flying at an altitude of 300-600 meters over the sea when we are taking measurements, but much higher over land to avoid any conflicts with air traffic. We will be operating out of Cambridge Bay airport. Our intention is only to fly into and out of the airport. We do not plan to land anywhere except this airport. Our crews will stay in Cambridge Bay between flights. We plan to fly in Inuvik April 1-8 and Cambridge Bay April 9-23, although these dates could change based on weather. We want to fly out of Cambridge Bay in order to collect data with our colleagues Dr. John Yackel at the University of Calgary and Dr. Richard Kelly from the University of Waterloo who will be conducting similar sea ice related tests at the same time. Please see the image below for the proposed flight area. Research results will be published in scientific literature regarding Sea Ice and Climate Change.