Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

The CryoSat-2 mission

The launch was due to take place on February 25 but due to last-minute problems, the launch has been postponed. We are talking about the new satellite of the European Space Agency, the CryoSat-2. Their mission will be to measure the surface and thickness of the planet’s ice sheets, measures they hope to achieve with an accuracy of 2 centimeters

No one doubts: the ice caps at the poles are melting at an alarming rate, but until now it has not been possible to obtain accurate data of the month-to-month changes in these shadowy masses.

The ice of the Arctic Ocean and the frozen areas of Greenland and Antarctica play a very important role in regulating the planet's climate. For this reason, it would be very useful to measure the changes in the frozen areas of the seas and continents.

The CryoSat-2 satellite aims to investigate changes in the cryosphere... both natural and man-made changes. The cryosphere is the part of the earth’s surface where water is in a solid state.

The new satellite has been developed by the European Space Agency. To this end, they have relied on the proven techniques of the first Earth observation mission, the ERS, and the Envisat mission.

The CryoSat-2 satellite has several improvements over its precursors. Most notable is the fact that the satellite’s SIRAL SAR technology has doubled, i.e. it carries two altimeters equipped with interferometric rails. If one stopped working due to some technical problem, the other could continue working.

Another improvement is the microwave radar. It has been prepared to work in any climatic situation, and it will work in two ways: in the oceans and on the continents continuous ice sheets, it will work as a conventional altimeter, while in the sea bench, thanks to a synthetic aperture radar, it will be able to see the surface of the ocean between the fragments of shadows... in this way, it will be able to make a topography of the frozen surface above the sea.

In the most advanced high-resolution mode, using a second antenna and radar pulsations, the CryoSat-2 satellite will accurately measure the thickness of the polar ice caps and height variations on their surface by 2 centimeters.

In order to obtain data from two poles in an integral manner, the satellite will be rotated in a highly tilted orbit towards the Equator at an altitude of 700 km around the Earth. During the 3 years of the mission, all satellite data will be collected at the Kiruna centre in Sweden and analysed at ESA’s operations centre in Germany.

It is ESA’s third mission to orbit Earth after CryoSat-2, GOCE and SMOS.