CryoSat (Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission)

European Space Agency
October, 2005 to October, 2005

CryoSat is the first Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission in ESA's Living Planet Program; it is a next-generation radar altimetry mission dedicated to observations of the polar regions. The science objectives are to determine variations in the thickness of Arctic sea ice and elevation changes of ice sheets, ice caps and glaciers that ring the Arctic Ocean (continental ice sheets). Sea ice plays a central role in Arctic climate. The CryoSat mission is to further knowledge of the wider role of the Earth's cryosphere and its effect on the sea level. The CryoSat mission was proposed by Duncan Wingham of the University College London (UCL) and an international science team. Duncan Wingham is also the mission PI. A nominal mission duration of three years is planned (excluding the commissioning and validation phases, which may last up to six months).

directory.eoportal.org

http://www.esa.int/export/esaLP/cryosat.html

Instrument	Datasets
Laser Reflectors	0
SAR Interferometer Radar Altimeter	0
Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite-NG	0

Also known as :

• missionID 378 (ceos lexicon)
• Mission CryoSat (ceos lexicon)
• resource CryoSat-1 (dbpedia lexicon)