CryoSat-2 is an ESA Earth Explorer mission that was launched in 2010, with CPOM Director Andy Shepherd as the Principal Scientific Advisor. The mission was designed to last approximately 5 years, but it is still in orbit and the mission has now been extended until 2028.
The original CryoSat was proposed in 1998 by CPOM’s Founder, Sir Duncan Wingham. CryoSat-1 launched on 8th October 2005, but a programming issue with the rocket meant that the satellite was lost immediately after launch. CryoSat-2, which had some additional capabilities and upgraded software, was successfully launched on 8th April 2010.
CryoSat-2 – The Ice Mission video, which was released on the day of CryoSat-2’s launch (8th April 2010). Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Dedicated to measuring polar sea ice thickness and the mass balance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, CryoSat flies at an altitude of 719 km (about 446.77 mi) and reaches latitudes of 92° north and south, maximising its coverage of the poles.
CryoSat uses a unique radar instrument called SIRAL (Synthetic Aperture Interferometric Radar Altimeter), designed to measure both sea ice and the polar ice sheets, and particularly changes at the margins of vast ice sheets and floating ice in polar oceans. SIRAL can not only detect tiny variations in the height of the ice but also measure sea level with unprecedented accuracy. The CPOM data portal provides more information on CryoSat measurements of sea ice thickness as well as Antarctic ice sheet surface elevation change.
To find out more, watch CPOM Director, Andy Shepherd, talk about the CryoSat-2 mission concept, the technical advances that have improved our capability to monitor land ice, sea ice, and the polar oceans, and a series of flagship studies that have allowed both long-standing and unanticipated scientific problems in cryospheric research to be solved:
In 2020, ESA changed the orbit of CryoSat-2 to be in better alignment with NASA’s ICESat-2. The Cryo2ice collaboration combined data from both satellites to enhance scientists’ knowledge and understanding of ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice.
Image: CryoSat-2 seen from underneath. Credit: ESA
