Satellite launch

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Thursday the successful launch of a satellite to study the effects of climate change on the Earth's polar ice cover.

The satellite, known as the CryoSat-2, lifted off from Kazakhstan with the help of a Russian rocket and will orbit the Earth at a distance of 717 kilometers. Its specific mission is to measure changes in the thickness of the ice sheets spanning across Antarctica and Greenland, as well as variations in thickness of the ice floating in the polar oceans.

While previous satellites were able to capture images of the ice in these regions, the significance of the CryoSat-2 project lies in the precision of its measurements. With the CryoSat-2's help, scientists will be able to determine the thickness of polar ice to within one to three centimeters.

"By using radar satellites, we have learned that ice masses are shrinking," said Volker Liebig, the ESA's director of Earth Observation Programs. "But what we still need are exact records of how the volume of ice is changing."

Around the world in 90 minutes

To generate these records, the satellite will complete a revolution that passes over the Earth's poles once about every 90 minutes. The CryoSat-2 uses a radar system during its orbit to send brief impulses to the ground and then measures exactly when their echoes return to the satellite.

In turn, scientists must monitor the position of the satellite itself within a few centimeters. This technical feat will be handled by the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

The price of success

The total cost of the project is estimated at around 140 million euros ($187 million). Germany's contribution will make up for 24 percent of the cost.

The CryoSat-2 is the third "Earth Explorer" satellite put into orbit by the ESA in just over a year along with GOCE, which is measuring the Earth's gravity field and SMOS, which measures soil moisture and ocean salinity.

CryoSat-2 replaces the original Cryo-Sat, which fell into the Arctic Ocean just ten minutes after its 2005 launch. ESA regarded the mission as so important, however, that it decided within six months to replace the original satellite.

"I'm incredibly relieved," ESA Project Manager Richard Francis declared, following Thursday's successful launch.

The new CryoSat features backups of several critical system components, and its radar system accounts for roughly half of the 140 million euro cost.

Looking ahead

The CryoSat-2 project is slated to last from three to five years - a time frame that fails to provide researchers insight into long-term trends relating to polar ice masses.

Nevertheless, there is hope that the CryoSat-2's success may spark interest among other research groups in creating related satellites, climate physicist Duncan Wingham told Deutsche Welle. He pointed to the precedent of the first satellite mission measuring ozone levels begun in 1978, which prompted a proliferation of satellites capable of similar research.

Author: Dirk Lorenzen (gsw/AP/DPA)
Editor: Stuart Tiffen