* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: CryoSat-2 mission

Blobrana · L

Cryosat mission delivers first sea-ice map

This is the best view we have yet had of the thickness of sea-ice across the entire Arctic Ocean basin.
It is the first fully processed map from Europe's new Cryosat spacecraft.
It only covers the months of January and February, but the UK team behind the data says it can now roll out the information on a continuous basis.
The extent of Arctic sea-ice has become a major issue in recent years, with summer melting appearing to outstrip what many climate models had predicted.
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Blobrana · L

CryoSat Greenland camp receives royal guest

ESA's CryoSat team working on the Greenland ice sheet has been honoured with a visit from a Dutch delegation including HRH Prince of Orange. The visit is part of a tour to learn more about climate change in polar regions and consequences for the environment.
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Blobrana · L

Icebreakers cruise for CryoSat complete

From Angelika (NPI), Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard, 9 May

Over the last days we have been continuing with the work on the sea ice north of Svalbard, detailing snow elevation and thickness, taking ice-thickness measurements and sampling other physical properties of snow and ice.
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Blobrana · L

CryoSat ice data now open to all

Scientists can now tap into a flow of new data that will help to determine exactly how Earth's ice is changing. This information from ESA's CryoSat mission is set to make a step change in our understanding of the complex relationship between ice and climate.

Blobrana · L

Cryosat ice mission returns first science

The Cryosat-2 spacecraft has produced its first major science result.
Radar data from the European satellite has been used to make a map of ocean circulation across the Arctic basin.
Cryosat's primary mission is to measure sea-ice thickness, which has been in sharp decline in recent decades.
But its ability also to map the shape of the sea surface will tell scientists if Arctic currents are changing as a result of winds being allowed to blow more easily on ice-free waters.
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Blobrana · L

CryoSat-2 goes live
With the commissioning of ESA's CryoSat now complete, the mission has been officially transferred to the operations team. This milestone marks the beginning of the satellite's operational life delivering ice-thickness data to understand the impact of climate change on the polar environment.
Launched in April, the mission has recently completed commissioning - an important phase that ensures the satellite, instruments, data retrieval and data processing procedures are in optimal working order. Now that this period is over, the mission has entered its exploitation phase and will start delivering vital data on ice thickness to the scientific community.
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Blobrana · L

ESA's ice mission goes live

With the commissioning of ESA's CryoSat now complete, the mission has been officially transferred to the operations team. This milestone marks the beginning of the satellites operational life delivering ice-thickness data to understand the impact of climate change on the polar environment.
The handover ceremony took place on 19 November at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands, where the responsibility for the mission passed from CryoSat-2's Project Manager, Richard Francis, to the Mission Manager, Tommaso Parrinello.
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Blobrana · L

CryoSat ice mission gets clean bill of health

Realising a satellite mission is a complicated task, with many milestones to pass before data are delivered to advance our understanding of Earth. However, scientists will soon have access to precious information on ice thickness as the commissioning of ESA's CryoSat draws to a close.
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Blobrana · L

Scientists receive first CryoSat-2 data

A better understanding of how Earth's ice fields are changing has come another step closer as the first data from ESA's ice mission are released to selected scientists around the world for fine-tuning.
This release, which comes just three months after CryoSat-2 was launched, is the first milestone in the scientific exploitation of the mission's data. These data are essential for determining tiny variations in the thickness of ice floating in the polar oceans and in the large ice sheets that blanket Antarctica and Greenland.
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