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

Explorers Jamie Facer Childs and Justin Packshaw

Kitesurfing the white wilderness for polar science

16/12/2021 3446 views 82 likes

Greenland meltwater runoff

Meltwater runoff from Greenland becoming more erratic

03/11/2021 5664 views 66 likes

Antarctica

Antarctic glacier named Glasgow to mark COP26

31/10/2021 4105 views 82 likes

Baltic Sea from Copernicus Sentinel-3

New satellite data techniques reveal coastal sea-level rise

07/07/2021 15122 views 112 likes

Victims of diminishing Arctic sea ice

Arctic coastal sea ice thinning twice as fast than thought

10/06/2021 4404 views 109 likes

Gulf of Alaska

CryoSat reveals ice loss from glaciers in Alaska and Asia

01/06/2021 4835 views 72 likes

CryoSat key to measuring sea-ice thickness

Arctic sea ice succumbs to Atlantification

21/05/2021 9370 views 133 likes

Getz glaciers flowing faster

Getz on the run

23/02/2021 4324 views 90 likes

Wetlands

Earth observation vital in monitoring wetland waters

02/02/2021 5899 views 86 likes

Earth is losing ice at record rate

Our world is losing ice at record rate

25/01/2021 15323 views 140 likes

Depth of the A-68A iceberg

A-68A iceberg thinning at 2.5 cm per day

23/12/2020 10353 views 125 likes

Thwaites glacier seen by Copernicus Sentinel-2

CryoSat reveals surprising ebb and flow of subglacial lakes

14/12/2020 4771 views 66 likes

Antarctic landscape

Places in Antarctica named in honour of ice scientists

09/12/2020 3905 views 60 likes

Industrial emissions of carbon dioxide fuel our warming climate

Providing the facts to help Europe achieve 55%

16/09/2020 3583 views 48 likes

Sea ice

CryoSat taken to new heights for ice science

03/08/2020 3110 views 50 likes

ESA's ice mission

CryoSat still cool at 10

08/04/2020 4289 views 69 likes

Greenland and Antarctica losing ice six times faster than e…

11/03/2020 16056 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 6454 views 98 likes

Polarstern

A year trapped in Arctic ice for climate science

24/09/2019 6233 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 4787 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 7397 views 114 likes

Jakobshavn Glacier

Jakobshavn Isbrae Glacier bucks the trend

14/05/2019 11293 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 14145 views 96 likes

Antarctica hikes up sea level

13/06/2018 9694 views 158 likes

Antarctica in 3D

New view of Antarctica in 3D

11/05/2018 18673 views 107 likes

CryoSat reveals retreat of Patagonian glaciers

02/05/2018 8330 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 17094 views 147 likes

CryoSat reveals iceberg

Giant iceberg in the making

05/07/2017 29778 views 224 likes

Antarctica in 3D

CryoSat reveals Antarctica in 3D

24/03/2017 22837 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 4049 views 63 likes

Satellites track variations in Antarctica’s glacial retreat

12/12/2016 5335 views 60 likes

2011–16 November Arctic sea-ice thickness

Arctic freeze slows down

30/11/2016 8450 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 11214 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 11953 views 161 likes

Eiffel ice cube

Ice matters

11/12/2015 5115 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 13015 views 115 likes

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