reporter: nathan kurtz is the lead scientist of nasa s operation ice bridge. his team s mission will last for six weeks. in order to look at long-term changes, we need a long-term record that goes year-to-year. we need to put all of the pieces together to really find out what s causing changes. reporter: the data and images collected over the course of the spring will be taken back to nasa to be analyzed. and its findings made public later this year. when you hear politicians back in washington, d.c. say, you know, the science is inconclusive about climate change, you re actually creating the science in realtime. what do you think? i think that the data that we are collecting is valuable, it s real, it s showing changes that are happening and regardless of what some people might believe, the facts are the facts. they speak for themselves. reporter: climate change is real. climate change is real. jacob soboroff is back in l.a., joins me now. jacob, trump s nominee was just