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CryoSat at a glance An Earth ExplorerCryoSat: an icy missionEarth’s changing iceFacts and figures About the satellite About the launch Meet the team Multimedia Image GalleryAnimationsVideosOnline documentsServices
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How will the coldest parts of our planet react to climate change? Although there now seems little doubt the Earth's atmosphere is warming, it is extremely difficult to accurately predict the effect this will have on polar ice.
Since ice plays a major role in the regulation of planetary climate, it is important to determine changes in the thickness of the marine and continental ice cover. However the polar regions are vast, remote and inhospitable places. Today's researchers lack the basic data needed to estimate long-term thickness trends.
Without more adequate observation, it is impossible to know for sure whether observed changes in polar ice are actually due to global warming rather than natural variability.
By measuring ice thickness on both land and sea very precisely over a three-year period, CryoSat aims to provide conclusive proof whether there is indeed a trend towards diminishing polar ice cover, and in the process enhance scientific understanding of the relationship between ice and global climate.
Last update: 12 March 2007 | |
| | First CryoSat mission CryoSat Mission lost due to launch failureInterview with Volker Liebig on the loss of CryoSatLaunch diary
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