CryoSat-2 satellite launches on mission to monitor climate change in Arctic

[FarCenter]

A resurrected satellite, carrying the hopes of climate scientists, successfully made a second attempt to reach orbit today from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The first CryoSat satellite crashed minutes after launch in 2005, ditching - with cruel irony - into the Arctic Ocean it was meant to study.

The €140m (£122m) CryoSat-2 is a replica built by the European Space Agency, but with some additional instruments. The satellite is currently in orbit after a successful separation and has sent communication signals which have been received by a ground team in Malindi, Kenya. The satellite will be able to measure the thickness of Arctic and Antarctic ice to within a centimetre - an accuracy unmatched until now. Lift-off was shown live online and took place during the scheduled launch of 1457 BST.

The melting of sea ice, ice caps and glaciers across the planet is one of the clearest signs of global warming and the UK-led team of scientists will use the data from CryoSat-2 to track how this is affecting ocean currents, sea levels and the overall global climate.

Duncan Wingham, a climate physicist at University College London and the lead scientist for both missions, is hoping this will be second time lucky. "Satellites have transformed our knowledge of what is happening to these distant and uninhabited parts of the planet. CryoSat-2 will help unravel the consequences of the dramatic changes in the poles that we've seen in the past two decades."

<SNIP>http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/08/cryosat-european-space-agency-arctic-ice

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The National Snow and Ice Data Center has released its latest report on April 6.

"Cold snap causes late-season growth spurt" at http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/