Part of the PIPERS program was the October-November 2016, 2017 summer seasons in McMurdo station for IcePod flights and, in collaboration with a New Zealand team (Pat Langhorne and Wolfgang Rack), for measurements of fast ice properties and validation of remotely sensed sea ice geophysical properties. See a short presentation of the 2016 trip.

Part of the PIPERS program also included participation from the PolarTrec program with Mrs. Jennifer Bault, a high school teacher from Wisconsin, who joined the October-November 2017 trip to McMurdo Station and McMurdo Sound. The Beauty of Ice, When Art Collides with Science is her lesson plan (published in 2018) inspired by the sea ice field and lab experiments.