CryoSat to observe Earth’s ice cover

The ESA is to launch a satellite to investigate the Earth’s ice fields and map ice thickness over water and land. ESA’s ice mission satellite CryoSat will be placed into orbit 700 km above Earth by a Russian Dnepr rocket. CryoSat will be the third of ESA’s Earth Explorer satellites in orbit, following on from GOCE and SMOS. The 700 kg CryoSat spacecraft carries the first all-weather microwave radar altimeter. The instrument has been optimised for determining changes in the thickness of both floating sea ice, which can be up to several metres, and polar land ice sheets, which in Antarctica can be up to five kilometres. The mission will deliver data on the rate of change of the ice thickness accurate to within one centimetre.

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