Cryosat: The European Space Agency’s Ice Mission
06.09.2005 - Other
European Space Agency's CryoSat mission is dedicated to monitoring precise changes in the thickness of polar ice sheets and floating sea ice over a 3-year period.
How will the coldest parts of our planet react to climate change? Although there seems to be little doubt the Earth's atmosphere is warming, it is extremely difficult to accurately predict the effect this will have on polar ice.
Since ice plays a major role in the regulation of planetary climate, it is important to determine changes in the thickness of the marine and continental ice cover. However the Polar Regions are vast, remote and inhospitable places. Today's researchers lack the basic data needed to estimate long-term thickness trends. More information about Cryosat's mission and objectives are available in the following multimedia presentation.
