ESA’s CryoSat-2 Successfully Launched
09.04.2010 - Logistics, Atmosphere & Space, Ice & Snow, Bi-polar
CryoSat-2 was successfully launched on April 8th, 2010 at 15:57 CEST (13:57 UTC) on a Dnepr rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellite, which replaces the original CryoSat, will be measuring variations in ice thickness of the ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland as well as variations in the thickness of the sea ice in the polar oceans.
The successful launch of CryoSat-2 brings the number of satellites in ESA's Earth observation program to three, all of them having been launched over a 12-month period. Launched in direct response to issues identified by the scientific community, these Earth Explorers aim to improve our understanding of the Earth systems and the impact of human activity on natural processes. While scientists know from radar satellites that the extent of Arctic sea ice is diminishing, the data on ice thickness to be obtained through CryoSat-2 is expected to help them calculate how the volume of ice is changing.
To make measurements, CryoSat-2 will use the sophisticated SAR/Interferometric Radar Altimeter (SIRAL), which was developed to overcome the encountered difficulties of measuring icy surfaces. Moreover, by reaching latitudes of 88° - an orbit much closer to the poles than earlier Earth observation satellites - CryoSat-2 will be covering an additional 4.6 million km² previously not observed by satellite. The combination of both on-board technology and a polar orbit should allow scientists to gain better insight into the relationship between ice and climate.
