Steps to make sea ice projections more robust

Author: Nicola Bortun

Steps to make sea ice projections more robust

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

By David Schroeder, CPOM researcher, University of Reading

Reproduced from the Weather and Climate @ Reading blog

Climate model projections are our best approach to make predictions about future sea ice in both hemispheres for the whole 21st century. Given the large spread between individual model projections and distinct discrepancies between model results and satellite-based observations for the last decades, the question arises how accurate these projections are. The reliability of such simulations depends on how well key processes are captured in the climate model. CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5) models generally simulate the observed sea ice decline better than the older CMIP3 models indicating that, for example, the improved representation of sea ice processes is important (Stroeve et al., 2012).

In Danny Feltham’s sea ice group we have added and improved several sea ice processes in the Los Alamos sea ice model CICE which is used in many climate models (e.g. the current U.K. Met Office model HadGEM3). The most important contributions are a physical melt pond model describing the evolution of melt ponds (Flocco et al., 2012; Schroeder et al., 2014), an elastic anisotropic plastic rheology accounting for the subcontinuum anisotropy of the sea ice cover (Tsamados et al., 2013) and a spatially and temporally variable form drag parameterization for the momentum exchange between ice and atmosphere as well as ice and ocean (Tsamados et al., 2014).

These new developments increase the realism of the sea ice model. However, incorporating these developments in a climate model does not result in better climate simulations as a matter of course. Many physical and empirical parameters are not very well constrained in a sea ice model requiring a tuning process applying observational data. In the past, most of the tuning has been based on sea ice concentration data derived from passive microwave imagery. This is a problem because realistic sea ice thickness is crucial for simulating variability and trends of the sea ice cover. Using radar altimetry, sea ice thickness estimates are available from CryoSat-2 (CS2) (e.g. from the CPOM portal) during the ice growth seasons since 2010. However, the discrimination of ice and open water, the discrimination of ice type, retracking radar waveforms to obtain height estimates, constructing of sea surface height beneath the ice, and estimating the depth of the snow cover result in a grid cell ice thickness uncertainty of about 25%.

Figure 1:  Mean effective sea ice thickness over read region shown in inlet above. Verification of CICE-default and CICE-best with Cryosat CS2 CPOM. Results from the ocean sea-ice model PIOMAS are added for comparison. Red area is defined as region where impact of winter growth on thickness change dominates other factors and where CS2 data are most accurate.

In a current study we selected an optimal region for comparing sea ice thickness between simulations with the sea ice model CICE and CS2 data (see red region in Figure 1) by taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches excluding locations where the number of CS2 observations is limited and the sea ice is thin (Schroeder et al., 2018). Figure 1 shows that a default CICE simulation (blue) strongly underestimates ice thickness, but a new CICE setup (red) agrees well. The most important impact comes from implementing a new process: accounting for the loss of drifting snow. Our optimal model configuration does not only improve the simulated sea ice thickness, but also summer sea ice concentration, melt pond fraction, and length of the melt season. In spite of its uncertainties we successfully applied CS2 sea ice thickness data to improve sea ice model physics.

Reducing uncertainty in sea ice projections requires better representation of key processes, not only of the sea ice component, but also in the atmosphere, the ocean and regarding the coupling. Polar cloud formation and the interaction with the sea ice surface has been identified as a key process which is currently not represented satisfactorily.

References:

Flocco, D., D. Schroeder, Feltham D. L., Hunke E. C., 2012: Impact of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice simulations from 1990 to 2007. J. Geophys. Res., 117, C09032, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JC008195.

Schroeder, D., Feltham D. L., Flocco D., Tsamados M., 2014: September Arctic sea-ice minimum predicted by spring melt-pond fraction. Nat. Climate Change, 4, 353-357, https://doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE2203.

Schröder, D., Feltham D. L., Tsamados M., Ridout A., Tilling R., 2018: New insight from CryoSat-2 sea ice thickness for sea ice modelling. The Cryosphere Discuss. (in review), https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2018-159

Stroeve, J. C., Kattsov V., Barrett A., Serreze M., Pavlova T., Holland M., Meier W. N., 2012: Trends in Arctic sea ice extent from CMIP5, CMIP3 and observations. Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L16502, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052676.

Tsamados, M., Feltham D. L., Schroeder D., Flocco D., Farrell S. L., Kurtz N., Laxon S. W., Bacon S., 2014: Impact of Variable Atmospheric and Oceanic Form Drag on Simulations of Arctic Sea Ice. J. Phys. Oceanog., 44, 1329-1353, https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-13-0215.1

Tsamados, M., Feltham D. L., Wilchinsky A., 2013: Impact of a new anisotropic rheology on simulations of Arctic sea ice. J. Geophys. Res.: Oceans, 118, 91-107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JC007990

Rachel Tilling wins 2018 Women In Aerospace-Europe Young Professional Award

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Congratulations to CPOM’s Rachel Tilling who has just been announced as the 2018 Women in Aerospace-Europe Young Professional Award Winner!

This recognises her excellent work on Arctic sea ice quantification using satellite altimetry.  You can read the WIA-Europe citation below, and also learn all about Rachel’s Arctic adventures from her CPOM blog post.

Rachel is a climate scientist, specialising in satellite observations of the Polar regions. She received her PhD in Polar Remote Sensing from University College London in 2016 after obtaining her BSc in Physics from the University of Bristol and MSc in Physical Oceanography and Climate Studies from the University of Southampton.

Rachel is an academic research fellow at the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) where her research focuses on using radar altimetry to monitor changes in global sea ice cover.

Rachel’s research has taken her on expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic with the European Space Agency (ESA) and British Antarctic Survey (BAS), where she investigates ground-based radar measurements over sea ice for satellite validation. Her publications have earned her the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS) and Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) early career awards for her work on quantifying sea ice volume changes in the Arctic.

Outside of work Rachel teaches scuba diving and has experience in scientific diving. She is active in communicating her research to the public and keen to diversify the representation of scientists in the media.

Sentinels track Greenland’s summer speed-up

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

ESA’s Sentinel-1 mission has revealed exactly how fast Greenland’s glaciers are flowing into the Arctic Ocean.

The research, published in The Cryosphere, used Sentinel-1 data to show that Greenland’s largest glacier has actually slowed down by 10% since 2012, but that flow is seasonal, with summer ice speeds increasing by up to 25% on some parts of the ice sheet.

The study used Sentinel-1 to track Greenland’s four main glaciers, Jakobshavn Isbræ, Petermann Glacier, Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden, and Zachariæ Isstrøm, between 2014 and 2017.

With these glaciers alone containing enough water to increase global sea levels by 1.8 m, monitoring their flow is vital to understanding the overall ice sheet dynamics.

The fastest flowing glacier, Jakobshavn Isbræ, had reached a peak of 17 km per year in 2013, the result of an unusually warm summer.  But the Sentinel-1 data showed that, on average, it had actually slowed down by 10% between 2012 and 2017, to 12.5 km per year.

This was overlaid by a seasonal pattern, with the glacier accelerating by up to 14% over a three-month summer period, before slowing down again in winter.

Lead author and CPOM research student Adriano Lemos explained: “We saw this summer speed-up at all four glaciers, reaching 25% at Petermann Glacier.  This means that speed needs to be monitored throughout the year to fully understand how the glaciers are moving.”

Until recently it was difficult to closely observe exactly how fast the glaciers were flowing, because they are remote, vast, and can change so rapidly. But the launch of the Sentinel-1 constellation (1A in 2014, followed by 1B in 2016), with its global coverage and short revisit times, means that small, weekly changes can be spotted.

Lemos added: “Sentinel-1 has real advantages for studying these glaciers.  We get more data, more often, so we can see the finer detail in even the most inaccessible and fast moving areas.”

The data also showed a relationship between glacier speed and the location of the calving front “where icebergs are born“ and grounding line, where the ice leaves the bedrock and begins to float on the ocean.

Lemos said: “This shows how flow is influenced not only by the glacier’s surrounding environment, but also the nature of the ice itself.”

Co-author Dr Anna Hogg added: “Acquiring all this valuable radar data needed international coordination between multiple space agencies (ESA and DLR, the German Aerospace Centre).  This paper shows how our efforts are being rewarded through improving our understanding of environmental change in Greenland.”

Near real time ice velocity measurements for Greenland, as well as the Antarctic Ice Sheet, can be accessed via the CPOM data portal.

CPOM Director Andy Shepherd summarised: “We have shown how the new generation of radar satellites can give us important details on ice velocity across the Greenland Ice Sheet.

“Next, we will use Sentinel-1 to investigate the patterns seen here, further improving our understanding of how these glaciers will respond to a changing climate.”

The full reference is: Lemos, A. et al. (2018) “Ice velocity of Jakobshavn Isbræ, Petermann Glacier, Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden, and Zachariæ Isstrøm, 2015 – 2017”, from Sentinel 1-A/B SAR imagery, The Cryosphere doi:10.5194/tc-12-2087-2018

Satellites track vanishing Antarctic ice

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Monitoring Antarctica from space has revealed how its ice is being lost to the oceans, providing crucial insight into the continent’s response to a warming climate.

Scientists from CPOM the University of California San Diego and University of Maryland reviewed decades of satellite measurements to reveal how and why Antarctica’s glaciers, ice shelves, and sea ice are changing.

Their report, published in Nature’s special issue on Antarctica, explains how ice shelf thinning and collapse have triggered an increase in the continent’s sea level contribution. It also explains that although the total area of sea ice surrounding Antarctica has shown little overall change during the satellite era, there are signs of a longer-term decline when mid-twentieth century ship-based observations are considered.

Lead author and CPOM Director Professor Andrew Shepherd said: “Antarctica is way too big to survey from the ground, and we can only truly understand the trends in its ice cover by looking at the continent from space.”

In West Antarctica, ice shelves are being eaten away by warm ocean water, and those in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas are up to 18 per cent thinner than in the early 1990s. At the Antarctic Peninsula, where air temperatures have risen sharply, ice shelves have collapsed as their surfaces have melted. Altogether, 34,000 km2 of ice shelf area has been lost since the 1950s

“Although breakup of the ice shelves does not contribute directly to sea-level rise since ice shelves, like sea ice, are already floating, we now know that these breakups have implications for the inland ice: without the ice shelf to act as a natural buffer, glaciers can flow faster downstream and out to sea,” said Professor Helen Amanda Fricker, a glaciologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

More than 150 studies have tried to determine how much ice the continent is losing. The biggest changes have occurred in places where ice shelves – the continents protective barrier – have either thinned or collapsed.

In the Amundsen Sea, for example, ice shelf thinning of up to 6 metres per year has triggered a 1.5 km per year acceleration of the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers.  These glaciers have the potential to raise sea levels by more than a metre, and are now widely considered to be unstable.

Satellite observations have meanwhile provided an increasingly detailed picture of the sea ice cover, allowing us to map the extent, age, motion and thickness of the ice.

The combined effects of climate variability, atmosphere and ocean circulation, and even ice shelf melting have driven regional changes, including reductions in sea ice in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas.

Dr. Sinead Farrell, from the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Centre at the University of Maryland said: “The waxing and waning of the sea ice controls how much sunlight is reflected back to space, cooling the planet. Regional sea ice loss impacts the temperature and circulation of the ocean, as well as marine productivity.”

New and improved missions, such as Sentinel-3, the recently launched Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO), and the eagerly awaited ICESat-2, will continue to give us insights into the disappearing ice in even greater detail.

Further information:

The paper trends and connections across the Antarctic cryosphere is published in Nature special issue 14 June 2018.

Antarctica ramps up sea level rise

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Ice losses from Antarctica have increased global sea levels by 7.6 mm since 1992, with two fifths of this rise (3.0 mm) coming in the last five years alone.

The findings are from a major climate assessment known as the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE), and are published today in Nature. It is the most complete picture of Antarctic ice sheet change to date. 84 scientists from 44 international organisations combined 24 satellite surveys to produce the assessment.

Sea level contribution due to the Antarctic ice sheet between 1992 and 2017. Credit: IMBIE/Planetary Visions

The assessment, led by CPOM Director Professor Andrew Shepherd at the University of Leeds and Dr Erik Ivins at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, was supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Their findings show that, prior to 2012, Antarctica lost ice at a steady rate of 76 billion tonnes per year – a 0.2 mm per year contribution to sea level rise. However, since then there has been a sharp, threefold increase. Between 2012 and 2017 the continent lost 219 billion tonnes of ice per year – a 0.6 mm per year sea level contribution.

Animation illustrating changes in thickness and sea level contribution due to Antarctica between 1992 and 2017” (1 Minute 22 seconds). Credit: planetaryvisions.com

Antarctica stores enough frozen water to raise global sea level by 58 metres, and knowing how much ice it is losing is key to understanding the impacts of climate change today and in the future.

Professor Shepherd said: “We have long suspected that changes in Earth’s climate will affect the polar ice sheets. Thanks to the satellites our space agencies have launched, we can now track their ice losses and global sea level contribution with confidence.

“According to our analysis, there has been a steep increase in ice losses from Antarctica during the past decade, and the continent is causing sea levels to rise faster today than at any time in the past 25 years. This has to be a concern for the governments we trust to protect our coastal cities and communities.”

Dr Ivins said: “The added duration of the observing period, the larger pool of participants, various refinements in our observing capability and an improved ability to assess both inherent and interpretive uncertainties, each contribute to making this the most robust study of ice mass balance of Antarctica to date.”

Summer clouds swirl in around the Staccato Peaks of Alexander Island, Antarctic Peninsula. High snowfall and strong weather gradients in this mountainous area make assessment of glacier mass balance particularly challenging. Credit: Hamish Pritchard, BAS

The threefold increase in ice loss from the continent as a whole is a combination of glacier speedup in West Antarctica and at the Antarctic Peninsula, and reduced growth of the ice sheet in East Antarctica.

West Antarctica experienced the largest change, with ice losses rising from 53 billion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 159 billion tonnes per year since 2012.  Most of this came from the huge Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers, which are retreating rapidly due to ocean melting.

At the northern tip of the continent, ice shelf collapse at the Antarctic Peninsula has driven a 25 billion tonne per year increase in ice loss since the early 2000s.

The East Antarctic ice sheet has remained close to a state of balance over the past 25 years, gaining just 5 billion tonnes of ice per year on average.

Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, said: “CryoSat and Sentinel-1 are clearly making an essential contribution to understanding how ice sheets are responding to climate change and affecting sea level, which is a major concern.

“While these impressive results demonstrate our commitment to climate research through efforts such as our Climate Change Initiative and scientific data exploitation activities, they also show what can be achieved by working with our NASA colleagues. Looking to the future, however, it is important that we have satellites to continue measuring Earth’s ice to maintain the ice-sheet climate data record.”

Further information:

The paper Mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet from 1992 to 2017 by The IMBIE Team is published in Nature on 14 June, doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0179-y

CryoSat gives best 3D view of Antarctica yet

Posted on by Nicola Bortun
Antarctica in 3D

A new map of Antarctica, available to download from today, is providing the most accurate three-dimensional view of the continent to date.

This latest digital elevation model (DEM), developed by the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) and the result of research published today in The Cryosphere, replaces the beta version launched in March 2017.

Over the past year, CPOM researchers have refined and improved the DEM, which is based on satellite measurements from ESA’s CryoSat-2 mission, to give an even more detailed picture of Antarctica’s ice sheets and floating ice shelves.

Lead researcher Tom Slater explained: “Our new model has several advantages over the previous one.  It covers 350,000 km2 more of the continent’s surface area, and the resolution is now twice as high, sampling the ice sheet surface every kilometre.”

Around 250 million measurements taken by CryoSat’s radar altimeter between July 2010 and July 2016, including 5 million more than the beta version, were used to create the model, which now gives a snapshot of ice elevation across 95% of the continent – a 3% increase on the 2017 version.

The new digital elevation model of Antarctica derived from 6 years of CryoSat-2 altimetry

More sophisticated calculations were also used to fill in gaps that CryoSat could not survey, mostly due to the rugged terrain.

By comparing the model with precise airborne survey data from NASA’s Operation IceBridge, the team show that the new DEM measured ice elevation to within 9.5m on average, making it more accurate than the previously released beta, and the most accurate yet.

The model is freely available via the CPOM portal, alongside information on sea ice, ice velocity and ice sheets, making it accessible to anyone interested in Antarctic landscape and topography.

CPOM Director Andy Shepherd added: “This model will be useful to anybody wanting to know about the continent’s surface, whether they are planning scientific fieldwork, or modelling the ice sheet’s future behaviour and potential sea level contribution.”

Further information

  1. The paper, A new Digital Elevation Model of Antarctica derived from CryoSat-2 altimetry by Thomas Slater, Andrew Shepherd, Malcolm McMillan, Alan Muir, Lin Gilbert, Anna E. Hogg, Hannes Konrad and Tommaso Parrinello is published on 2 May in The Cryosphere. doi:10.5194/tc-12-1551-2018
  2. The Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) provides UK National Capability in observing and modelling the cryosphere on behalf of the National Environment Research Council (NERC). CPOM combines satellite measurements with theoretical and numerical models to explain how Earth’s ice, oceans and atmosphere interact, and to predict their behaviour over long periods and large scales.
  3. The 2018 DEM uses CryoSat-2 elevation measurements at resolutions of 1, 2 and 5 km, compared to 2 km in the original version.
  4. Coverage of the Antarctic ice sheet has risen from 91% to 94%, and the floating ice shelves from 97% to 98%. Overall data coverage is improved by 3% compared to the previous version (an area of ~350 000 km2). An improved interpolation scheme (ordinary kriging) has been used to fill any remaining data gaps.

CPOM helps school students become Earth Observation researchers

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

A new project launched by the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS) is offering students the chance to contribute to scientific understanding of the polar regions.

Funded by the UK Space Agency, MELT will allow schools to monitor changes at the poles using Earth Observation data.

CPOM’s Anna Hogg will be helping students to understand the latest satellite Earth Observation data and investigate events such as iceberg calving, where recent dramatic changes suggest that environmental conditions have changed.

Dr Hogg said: “There are really exciting opportunities for students to work with Earth Observation scientists on major changes. We used Sentinel-1 satellite data to watch a giant iceberg four times the size of London broke free from Antarctica’s Larsen-C ice shelf in 2017, and now students can use the same data to measure if new icebergs calve off some of the fastest flowing glaciers in the world!”

MELT is also challenging schools to calculate their carbon footprint and develop ideas for reducing their carbon output

Darren Harman, from Sir Robert Woodard Academy, commented: “MELT has presented a group of our Year 9 students with an amazing opportunity to be part of novel science research, that will undoubtedly enrich their experience of learning science in a way that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to until university and beyond.

“Not only are they excited at what they might discover looking at data no other human has yet cast their eyes upon, but also the prospect of inspiring students at local primary schools to share in their experience of running live science research in schools.”

Professor Becky Parker, director of IRIS said: “We’re really looking forward to seeing the results from MELT.  It’s a great opportunity for schools to engage their students in work to impact the environment and use the latest satellite data.  It’s fantastic to receive the backing from the UK Space Agency and our schools can’t wait to get started.”

For more information on the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS) MELT project please visit the IRIS website.

Antarctica retreating across the sea floor

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Antarctica’s great ice sheet is losing ground as it is eroded by warm ocean water circulating beneath its floating edge, a new study has found.

Research by CPOM at the University of Leeds has produced the first complete map of how the ice sheet’s submarine edge, or ‘grounding line’, is shifting. Most Antarctic glaciers flow straight into the ocean in deep submarine troughs, the grounding line is the place where their base leaves the sea floor and begins to float.

The study, published today in Nature Geoscience, shows that the Southern Ocean melted 1,463 km2 of Antarctica’s underwater ice between 2010 and 2016 – an area the size of Greater London.

Map showing rates of grounding line migration and their coincidence with ocean conditions around Antarctica between 2010 and 2016 (seabed temperatures: Locarnini et al., 2013. World Ocean Atlas 2013, Volume 1: Temperature. S. Levitus, Ed., A. Mishonov Technical Ed.; NOAA Atlas NESDIS 73, 40 pp.). Grounding line locations are from Rignot et al., 2013, Science 341 (6143), pp. 266-270.
Credit: Konrad et al.

The team, led by Dr Hannes Konrad, found that grounding line retreat has been extreme at eight of the ice sheet’s 65 biggest glaciers. The pace of deglaciation since the last ice age is roughly 25 metres per year. The retreat of the grounding line at these glaciers is more than five times that rate.

The biggest changes were seen in West Antarctica, where more than a fifth of the ice sheet has retreated across the sea floor faster than the pace of deglaciation.

Dr Konrad said: “Our study provides clear evidence that retreat is happening across the ice sheet due to ocean melting at its base, and not just at the few spots that have been mapped before now. This retreat has had a huge impact on inland glaciers, because releasing them from the sea bed removes friction, causing them to speed up and contribute to global sea level rise.”

The researchers also found some unexpected behaviour. Although retreat of the Thwaites Glacier grounding line in West Antarctica has sped up, at the neighbouring Pine Island Glacier – until recently one of the fastest retreating on the continent – has halted. This suggests that the ocean melting at its base may have paused.

Dr Konrad added: “These differences emphasise the complex nature of ice sheet instability across the continent, and being able to detect them helps us to pinpoint areas that deserve further investigation.”

Grounding lines typically lie a kilometre or more below sea level and are inaccessible even to submersibles, so remote sensing methods for detecting them are extremely valuable.

The team were able to track the movement of Antarctica’s grounding line using European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 across 16,000 km of the coastline. Although CryoSat-2 is designed to measure changes in the ice sheet elevation, these can be translated into horizontal motion at the grounding line using knowledge of the glacier and sea floor geometry and the Archimedes principle of buoyancy – which relates the thickness of floating ice to the height of its surface.

Study co-author Professor Andy Shepherd said: “We were delighted at how well CryoSat-2 is able to detect the motion of Antarctica’s grounding lines. They are impossible places to access from below, and usually invisible on the ground, so it’s a fantastic illustration of the value of satellite measurements for identifying and understanding environmental change.”

Further information:

Images and animation are available for download: https://goo.gl/JXkX24

The paper Net retreat of Antarctic glacier grounding lines by Hannes Konrad, Andrew Shepherd, Lin Gilbert, Anna Hogg, Malcolm McMillan, Alan Muir and Thomas Slater is published 2 April in Nature Geoscience (doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0082-z).

Space to Earth View challenges kids to aim high!

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

CPOM’s Anna Hogg has been inspiring schoolchildren to take their fitness to new heights and learn about space science at the same time.

Funded by the UK Space Agency, the ‘Space to Earth View Challenge’ is a fun way of inspiring children of all abilities to get more active and work towards a shared goal whilst learning about the exciting topic of Earth Observation.

Anna has been working alongside Triathlon Trust ambassador and Team GB Paralympian Lauren Steadman, encouraging children to run, swim and cycle a total of 717km – the height at which CryoSat, the European Space Agency’s polar mission, orbits the Earth.

22 events across the UK have been delivered, with 6,826 children (52% male/48% female) taking part and 25,852 km travelled – meaning the challenges have successfully been hitting CryoSat’s orbit!

Map of the UK showing the location of the schools that have taken part in the challenge

Anna said: “The challenge is a fantastic opportunity to engage children in both Earth Observation and keeping fit, paving the way for healthy lifestyles and an interest in space science as they get older.”

100% of teachers rated the event ‘Excellent’. 100% of teachers agreed that the activity increased their pupil’s understanding of Earth Observation and 92% of teachers intend to continue learning about earth observation with their pupils. 92% of teachers agreed that the activity was inclusive and that children enjoyed it.

The Triathlon Trust has provided all the equipment schools need to take part, including bikes mounted on turbo trainers.

Children taking part in the Space to Earth View challenge

Astronaut Tim Peake has meanwhile given his full support to the project as a way of promoting both fitness and space – having experienced them at the same time!

Tim Peake keeping fit on the ISS Treadmill. Credit: AP/ESA

Tweeting about the challenge this week, he said:

Watch Anna and Lauren explain more about the challenge in this video:

 Further information:

The Space to Earth View Challenge is a partnership between The Triathlon Trust, CPOM, the Ideas Foundation, Venture Thinking and Accenture. They would like to thank the UK Space Agency for making the project possible.

The Triathlon Trust is the official charity of British Triathlon, using the engaging sport of triathlon to encourage young people to lead healthy, more active lifestyles.

To see videos from the events visit: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPlhQD_vQ4o2a_b5q6rPwpg

Fellowship in Satellite Altimetry

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Are you an ambitious scientist looking for your next challenge? Do you want to further your career with CPOM? Do you have a PhD (or close to obtaining) in a quantitative subject, and the skills to develop our satellite altimetry capability?

CPOM is seeking to recruit a research fellow in satellite radar altimetry, with emphasis on creating cutting-edge satellite altimeter observations of the polar regions.  In this role, you will provide a valuable contribution to our programme of land ice altimetry research, focusing on studying the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets in unprecedented detail, exploiting recent developments in satellite radar altimetry and the resulting increase in the availability, volume, frequency and quality of Earth observation data.

Although based at the heart of the CPOM team in Leeds, you will work with scientists across our partner universities.In addition, you will liaise with ESA, BAS, NOC, the UK Met Office and other institutions as appropriate to contribute to CPOM’s scientific objectives.

For more details see the University of Leeds jobs web page.