Scientists receive first CryoSat-2 data

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, says the King James bible. That is certainly true when it comes to satellites measuring ice thickness and sending data back to Earth. Ice thickness constitutes one of the most important Arctic puzzle pieces, so this data will in large part answer the questions surrounding the state of the Arctic (and Antarctic) land and sea ice.

A satellite from the European Space Agency that will do just that, Cryosat-2, lifted off successfully this April from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Two days ago this news was released on the ESA website (h/t Artful Dodger):

A better understanding of how Earth's ice fields are changing has come another step closer as the first data from ESA's ice mission are released to selected scientists around the world for fine-tuning.
 
This release, which comes just three months after CryoSat-2 was launched, is the first milestone in the scientific exploitation of the mission's data. These data are essential for determining tiny variations in the thickness of ice floating in the polar oceans and in the large ice sheets that blanket Antarctica and Greenland. Around 150 scientists from about 40 research institutes now have access to the data. As part of the calibration and validation procedure, it is their job to help ensure these measurements meet the mission's exacting standards before the data are released to the wider scientific community later this year.  

Continue reading here.

 

For more information on satellites gathering data on land and sea ice, I highly recommend reading this article from Yale e360.

Comments

[dorlomin]

I have been reading up on this, the technology is pretty awesome. Good enough to be high end millitary grade stuff.

[Nathan]

Hi Neven,
That cryosat data looks great. the profile through the Arctic ice looks extremely similar to a seismic profile through the crust. There appears to be shapes reminiscent of subducting plates! Very cool...

[Neven]

Thanks, Nathan! I'm really curious what the data will tell scientists. Is the Arctic really in a death spiral? Is the PIOMAS model correct in its projections of ice volume? Or is there still time before an Arctic tipping point is reached?