CryoSat ice mission gets clean bill of health
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.
Since its launch in April, engineers and scientists have been hard at work to ensure the CryoSat Earth Explorer mission is in working order with everything properly tuned. This important phase guarantees that the scientific community receives the best-possible data so that they can build a true picture of what changes are occurring in the fragile polar regions. CryoSat is Europe's first mission dedicated to monitoring Earth's ice fields. The satellite carries a sophisticated radar altimeter called SIRAL that can measure the thickness of sea ice to within a few centimetres and also monitor changes in the vast ice sheets blanketing Greenland and Antarctica.