Latest CryoSat Stories

[ Watch the Video: Arctic Sea Ice Changes 2011-2012 ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online New observations using satellites have confirmed University of Washington researchers' analysis the Arctic Ocean sea ice really is thinning. A team combined new satellite observations, along with a model created by University of Washington researchers, to confirm the summer minimum in Arctic sea ice is one-fifth of what it was back in 1980, when the model started. The...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In the next few months, scientists from across Europe will be gathering together to try and choose the European Space Agency's next Earth Explorer mission. The series of Earth Explorer satellites are designed to advance science by exploring different aspects of Earth. The missions are helping scientists improve their understanding of the interactions between Earth's different components, and how human activity is affecting natural...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The European Space Agency's (ESA) ice mission is giving scientists a better look at oceans, coastal areas, inland water bodies and land. The orbiting CryoSat launched in 2010 and was developed to measure the changes in the thickness of polar sea ice, the elevation of ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica, and mountain glaciers. The satellite's radar altimeter not only detects tiny variations in the height of the ice,...

This year, satellites saw the extent of Arctic sea ice hit a record low since measurements began in the 1970s. ESA’s SMOS and CryoSat satellites are now taking a deeper look by measuring the volume of the sea-ice cover. Measurements from ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission show that ice has thinned significantly in the seasonal ice zones, with extensive areas less than half a metre thick. Sea ice has a large influence on the heat exchange between the ocean and the...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is likely to hit its lowest next week and then keep on shrinking. Scientists at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center say data shows that the sea ice coverage is tracking below the previous record low, set in 2007. Arctic sea ice extent during the first two weeks of August continues to track below the 2007 record low daily ice extents. As of August 13, ice extent is already among the four lowest...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Arctic sea ice is melting away far more rapidly than experts had previously predicted, with more than 215 cubic miles (900 cubic kilometers) worth disappearing from the Arctic Ocean over the past year, according to information obtained by the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 probe. According to Robin McKie, Science Editor with the UK newspaper The Guardian, that constitutes a 50% higher rate of loss than the majority of...

CryoSat was launched in 2010 to measure sea-ice thickness in the Arctic, but data from the Earth-observing satellite have also been exploited for other studies. High-resolution mapping of the topography of the ocean floor is now being added to the ice mission’s repertoire. The main objective of the polar-orbiting CryoSat is to measure the thickness of polar sea ice and monitor changes in the ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica. But the satellite’s radar altimeter is not...

Satellites offer a frequent overview of our entire planet – covered mostly by water – and provide valuable data to monitor and understand global ocean circulation. Understanding water currents at the ocean surface is important for many applications. Ocean surface currents have long fascinated oceanographers as they work to understand the role of oceans in the Earth system and how they affect our climate. Measurements of ocean surface currents are fundamental to a number of practical...

After nearly a year and a half of operations, CryoSat has yielded its first seasonal variation map of Arctic sea-ice thickness. Results from ESA’s ice mission were presented Tuesday at the Royal Society in London. In June 2011, the first map of Arctic sea-ice thickness was unveiled, using CryoSat data acquired between January and February of that year. Now, the complete 2010–11 winter season data have been processed to produce a seasonal variation map of sea-ice thickness. This...