Category: News of the other missions

Cryosat-2 was launched 3 months ago and already shows some first encouraging results on ice-thickness.

Even if the satellite is still in calibration phase, until the autumn, the fisrt results made by the SAR/Interferometric Radar Altimeter (SIRAL) are encouraging. Siral can measure the thickness of sea ice down to centimetres and monitor changes in the ice sheets on land. Its resolution seems amazing as it reveals a lot a details below the satellite track.

<link fileadmin images news mod_actus cryosat_first_sarin_data_antarctica_esa.jpg download>
One of CryoSat-2's first synthetic aperture radar data images across central Antarctica, on an area never measured before. Credits Esa.

The high orbit inclination is an another avantage. Closer to the coasts, the satellite covers an additional area, larger than all the European Union member states put together. All these results measuring the ice surface and ice thickness seem enough to detect small changes and lead to a better understanding of the relationship between ice and climate change.

Further information:

• Missions: Cryosat
• Esa website: <link http: www.esa.int specials living_planet_symposium_2010 sembc5pzvag_0.html _blank external-link-new-window>CryoSat-2 exceeding expectations