With diminishing ice one of many largest casualties of our warming world, it is crucial that correct measurements proceed to be made for scientific analysis and local weather coverage, in addition to for sensible functions reminiscent of ship routing.
To make sure that ESA and NASA are getting the perfect out of their ice-measuring satellites and to assist put together for Europe’s new CRISTAL satellite tv for pc, the 2 area companies together with the British Antarctic Survey and a crew of scientists teamed up not too long ago to hold out an bold marketing campaign in Antarctica.
The marketing campaign concerned taking simultaneous measurements of sea ice from ESA’s CryoSat and NASA’s ICESat-2 satellites, and from an plane flying immediately beneath the 2 satellites.
It’s the first time that this has ever been accomplished within the Antarctic.
CryoSat carries a radar altimeter and ICESat-2 carries a laser. Each devices measure the peak of ice by emitting a sign and timing how lengthy it takes for the sign to bounce off the ice floor and return to the satellite tv for pc.
Understanding the peak of the ice permits scientists to calculate thickness – which, together with measurements of the extent of ice protection, is important for understanding how the amount of ice is altering, each ice on land and ice floating within the sea.
That is significantly troublesome over sea ice as a result of snow can construct up on high of the ice.
Figuring out the thickness of sea ice entails measuring the ‘freeboard’ of ice floes – the peak protruding from the water. Nevertheless, snow can push the floe down into the water, hiding the ice’s true thickness. A snow-loading correction subsequently must be utilized to the info.
Combining measurements from the 2 satellites permits scientists to right for this snow-loading impact.
Whereas CryoSat’s radar penetrates by the snow layer and displays intently off the ice under, ICESat-2’s laser displays off the highest of the snow layer. Mixing simultaneous satellite tv for pc laser and radar readings signifies that estimates of snow depth shall be extra dependable.
Nevertheless, currents and wind shift sea ice round. Underneath regular circumstances, the 2 satellites would take measurements over the identical location days aside, so it may very well be completely different ice underneath their regular orbital paths. Ice on land is, after all, much less dynamic.
Till now, scientists haven’t been capable of totally exploit coincident measurements recorded by every mission to watch sea ice within the Southern Ocean.
A few years in the past, ESA carried out the difficult process of elevating CryoSat’s orbital top by nearly 1 km to part its floor tracks with these of ICESat-2. This orbital adjustment offers a singular alternative to check coincident measurements from each satellite tv for pc sensors.
Now that scientists are getting two several types of measurements of the identical sea ice, the current Antarctic marketing campaign served as an important inter-satellite calibration step and paves the best way for the longer term use of the separate satellite tv for pc measurement data.
For the marketing campaign, the British Antarctic Survey’s DASH-7 plane was fitted with cutting-end sensors that mimic the radar altimeter on CryoSat and the laser on ICESat-2. It was additionally fitted with devices that measure snow depth, floor albedo, and roughness.
Flights from the Survey’s Rothera Analysis Station have been timed to happen precisely because the satellites orbited above, permitting the crew to collect a set of high-resolution knowledge over the identical sea ice. This can assist the crew develop extra correct algorithms to enhance satellite-derived sea-ice thickness estimates.
By making use of these algorithms to the historic satellite tv for pc radar altimetry report such from CryoSat, they’ll present a time collection of Antarctic sea-ice thickness stretching again a long time and fill gaps within the data of sea ice within the polar areas.
The DASH-7 plane additionally carried a further set of sensors related to people who shall be carried on the brand new Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter mission, or CRISTAL for brief.
As a substitute of counting on radar and laser measurements from completely different satellites, CRISTAL’s radar will use two completely different frequencies to measure and monitor sea-ice thickness, overlying snow depth and ice-sheet elevations.
CRISTAL will make sure the long-term continuation of radar altimetry ice-elevation and topographic-change data, following on from CryoSat and different heritage missions.
These knowledge will assist secure maritime operations within the polar oceans and contribute to a greater understanding of local weather processes. CRISTAL can even assist functions associated to coastal and inland waters, in addition to offering observations of ocean topography.
Andrew Shepherd, from the College of Leeds and principal scientific advisor to the CryoSat and CRISTAL missions, famous, “Flying the DASH-7 is an thrilling alternative because it exhibits that we are able to bridge the hole that can come up between CryoSat and CRISTAL.”
ESA Analysis Fellow, Isobel Lawrence, famous, “The marketing campaign in Antarctica has been important in future-proofing sea-ice thickness measurements from area.”
ESA’s CRISTAL mission scientist, Paolo Cipollini, added, “ESA is within the technique of creating CRISTAL for the European Union’s Copernicus programme. This mission will present the sustained, long-term observations crucially wanted for polar local weather monitoring, local weather analysis and marine providers. And it is usually anticipated to allow thrilling new science, by advantage of its enhanced and expanded set of devices”.
Associated Hyperlinks
CryoSat at ESA
Earth Observation News – Suppiliers, Technology and Application
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World View to go public via SPAC Deal with Leo Holdings
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jan 15, 2023
World View and Leo Holdings Corp. II (NYSE: LHC), a publicly-traded particular objective acquisition firm, have entered right into a definitive enterprise mixture settlement that can lead to World View turning into a publicly listed firm. The transaction values the mixed firm at an estimated enterprise worth of $350 million. Upon closing of the transaction, the mixed firm will proceed working as World View.
World View plans to make use of the capital to broaden its world distant sensing enterprise … read more
