ESA - CryoSat - Archive

ESA title

The mission

ESA’s Earth Explorer CryoSat mission is dedicated to measuring the thickness of polar sea ice and monitoring changes in the ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica. Its main payload is a SAR Interferometric Radar Altimeter, which is designed for ice, measuring changes at the margins of vast ice sheets and floating ice in polar oceans.

The launch

Date: 08 April 2010
Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Rocket: Russian/Ukrainian Dnepr based on SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile

1st altimeter of its kind
10+ yrs in orbit
719 km mean altitude
92° inclination

CryoSat

Earth is losing ice at record rate

Our world is losing ice at record rate

25/01/2021 15359 views 140 likes

Depth of the A-68A iceberg

A-68A iceberg thinning at 2.5 cm per day

23/12/2020 10355 views 125 likes

Thwaites glacier seen by Copernicus Sentinel-2

CryoSat reveals surprising ebb and flow of subglacial lakes

14/12/2020 4779 views 66 likes

Antarctic landscape

Places in Antarctica named in honour of ice scientists

09/12/2020 3907 views 60 likes

Industrial emissions of carbon dioxide fuel our warming climate

Providing the facts to help Europe achieve 55%

16/09/2020 3585 views 48 likes

Sea ice

CryoSat taken to new heights for ice science

03/08/2020 3111 views 50 likes

ESA's ice mission

CryoSat still cool at 10

08/04/2020 4292 views 69 likes

Greenland and Antarctica losing ice six times faster than e…

11/03/2020 16068 views 100 likes

CryoSat

CryoSat sheds new light on Antarctica’s biggest glacier

27/01/2020 4325 views 79 likes

Filchner-Ronne ice shelf advance 2011–18

CryoSat maps ice shelf on the move

13/12/2019 6456 views 98 likes

Polarstern

A year trapped in Arctic ice for climate science

24/09/2019 6234 views 121 likes

Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake

CryoSat conquers ice on Arctic lakes

05/08/2019 4507 views 88 likes

Bathymetry of Chukchi Cap

Expanding our knowledge of Arctic Ocean bathymetry

24/07/2019 4793 views 58 likes

Non-linear tides in the Barents Sea

Modelling tides in the Arctic Ocean

11/07/2019 4378 views 46 likes

Ice streams named

Antarctic glaciers named after satellites

07/06/2019 4418 views 59 likes

Antarctic ice loss 1992–2019

A quarter of glacier ice in West Antarctica is now unstable

16/05/2019 7399 views 114 likes

Jakobshavn Glacier

Jakobshavn Isbrae Glacier bucks the trend

14/05/2019 11299 views 117 likes

Cloud-free Europe

New observations for the new economy

08/03/2019 10191 views 88 likes

Losing ice

Greenland ice loss quickening

06/12/2018 7947 views 131 likes

Regional sea-level trends

Spotlight on sea-level rise

25/09/2018 14156 views 96 likes

Antarctica hikes up sea level

13/06/2018 9697 views 158 likes

Antarctica in 3D

New view of Antarctica in 3D

11/05/2018 18717 views 108 likes

CryoSat reveals retreat of Patagonian glaciers

02/05/2018 8333 views 138 likes

Shifting grounding lines

Antarctica loses grip

03/04/2018 10285 views 163 likes

Secrets of hidden ice canyons revealed

11/10/2017 17096 views 147 likes

CryoSat reveals iceberg

Giant iceberg in the making

05/07/2017 29779 views 224 likes

Antarctica in 3D

CryoSat reveals Antarctica in 3D

24/03/2017 22853 views 166 likes

Sea ice

To the Arctic for CryoSat and beyond

20/03/2017 4743 views 69 likes

Four lakes under Thwaites

CryoSat reveals lake outbursts beneath Antarctic ice

08/02/2017 8896 views 139 likes

Ice thickness from CryoSat and SMOS

Satellite cousins have ice covered

16/12/2016 4050 views 63 likes

Satellites track variations in Antarctica’s glacial retreat

12/12/2016 5336 views 60 likes

2011–16 November Arctic sea-ice thickness

Arctic freeze slows down

30/11/2016 8451 views 103 likes

A desolate place to work

Probing Greenland’s ice sheet for future satellites

16/11/2016 5156 views 103 likes

Plankton bloom in the Barents Sea

New swath processing for ocean patterns?

28/10/2016 1225 views 5 likes

Stavanger, Norway

CryoSat sets new standard for measuring sea levels

26/07/2016 6212 views 98 likes

CryoSat reveals recent Greenland ice loss

12/07/2016 11216 views 125 likes

From petabytes to pictures

11/05/2016 8152 views 89 likes

Astrolabe Glacier

Antarctic ice safety band at risk

08/02/2016 11954 views 161 likes

Eiffel ice cube

Ice matters

11/12/2015 5116 views 60 likes

Sea ice

Cool summer boosts Arctic ice

20/07/2015 10597 views 93 likes

Southern Antarctic Peninsula ice loss

CryoSat detects sudden ice loss in Southern Antarctic Penin…

22/05/2015 13016 views 115 likes

Spring ice thickness

Fast access to CryoSat’s Arctic ice measurements now availa…

17/04/2015 8224 views 77 likes

Ice venturers yield results for CryoSat

18/03/2015 2687 views 49 likes

Austfonna ice loss

Satellites catch Austfonna shedding ice

23/01/2015 11853 views 95 likes

Five years ice-thickness change

CryoSat extends its reach on the Arctic

15/12/2014 8306 views 68 likes

Gravity reveals seafloor

CryoSat unveils secrets of the deep

03/10/2014 13504 views 113 likes

Greenland ice-sheet height

Ice sheet highs, lows and loss

20/08/2014 14877 views 106 likes

Sea-level detail from CryoSat

Special delivery from CryoSat

11/06/2014 3872 views 49 likes

Antarctica’s ice loss

CryoSat finds sharp increase in Antarctica’s ice losses

19/05/2014 14377 views 98 likes

Setting up camp

Ice mission and extreme camping

14/05/2014 5005 views 60 likes

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