From the European Space Agency, it looks like CryoSat-2 is working well. I’m sure we are all looking forward to seeing what the results are.
ESA’s ice mission delivers first data
13 April 2010
ESA’s CryoSat-2 has delivered its first data just hours after ground controllers switched on the satellite’s sophisticated radar instrument for the first time. CryoSat-2 was launched on 8 April and has been performing exceptionally well during these critical first few days in orbit.
Europe’s first mission dedicated to studying variations in our planet’s ice cover entered polar orbit just minutes after launch last Thursday, marking the start of three days of intense activity. Mission controllers at ESOC, ESA’s European Space Operations Centre, have been monitoring CryoSat-2 around the clock to ensure the satellite’s systems and payload were functioning normally.
The CryoSat-2 satellite was launched at 15:57 CEST (13:57 UTC), 8 April, on a Dnepr rocket provided by the International Space Company Kosmotras, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The signal confirming that it had separated from the launcher came 17 minutes later from the Malindi ground station in Kenya.
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CryoSat-2 launch
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By Sunday morning, 11 April, ESA’s Flight Director Pier Paolo Emanuelli declared that the formal Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) was complete and said, “The satellite is in excellent condition and the mission operations team quickly resolved the few problems that came up. It’s been a very smooth entry into orbit, precisely as planned.”
Later on Sunday, CryoSat-2’s primary instrument, the Synthetic Aperture Interferometric Radar Altimeter (SIRAL), was switched on for the first time and started gathering the first radar echo data.
SIRAL’s first data were acquired at 16:40 CEST and were downloaded and processed at ESA’s Kiruna ground station.
“We switched SIRAL on and it worked beautifully from the very start. Our first data were taken over the Antarctic’s Ross Ice Shelf, and clearly show the ice cover and reflections from underlying layers. These are excellent results at such an early stage and are a tribute to the hard work of the entire CryoSat community,” said Prof. Duncan Wingham, CryoSat’s Lead Investigator.
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First data received
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The satellite is in a polar orbit, reaching latitudes of 88°. This orbit brings it closer to the poles than earlier Earth observation satellites, covering an additional 4.6 million sq km – an area larger than all 27 European Union member states put together.
CryoSat-2’s sophisticated instruments will measure changes at the margins of the vast ice sheets that lie over Greenland and Antarctica and in the marine ice floating in the polar oceans. By accurately measuring thickness change in both types of ice, CryoSat-2 will provide information critical to scientists’ understanding of the role ice plays in the Earth system.
“The combined ground teams proved the value of months of extensive training and preparation and the satellite has shown to be a high-quality machine with very few problems. The launch and orbit injection have been almost flawless and we are looking forward to an extremely productive mission,” said Richard Francis, ESA’s Project Manager for CryoSat-2.
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ESA’s ice mission
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With LEOP complete, ground experts will now put CryoSat-2 through an exhaustive commissioning phase lasting several months, during which the systems on board the satellite and on the ground will be optimised to provide the best-ever ice thickness data from space.
“We are very happy with the first calibration results from SIRAL. The data are now being processed and made available almost immediately to the commissioning teams. We are now optimising the data-processing system and results will be released once we have accumulated enough data,” said Tommaso Parrinello, ESA’s CryoSat mission Manager.
Marking a significant achievement for ESA’s Earth observation programme, CryoSat-2 is the third of its Earth Explorer satellites to be placed in orbit, all within a little over 12 months. CryoSat-2 follows on from the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission, launched in March 2009, and the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, launched last November.
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OT: You can’t make this stuff up!
GAO audit of Energy Star reveals deep flaws in program for energy-efficient appliances
A space heater with a feather duster qualified
for Energy Star . . . as an air purifier.
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/2010/03/gao-audit-energy-star-program-bogus-products-energy-use-consumer-reports-testing-best-appliances.html
This satellite has unprecendented precision, and so we’ll be able to get an accurate photo of the situation in the polar regions. But the lifetime of this satellite is said to be 3 or 4 years, so I don’t see how it will be possible to infer longterm trends from its data.
The issue with this is that unless they begin with a fresh starting point there is no way to analyse anything. I would therefore presume that the intention is to monitor the ice as of now and any changes that occur subsequently, or are they just going to hide/exaggerate the decline?
let’s all hope that the likes of Pachauri and Jones and WWF do not start calling the good folks who operate this satelite. It will all become a huge waste.
And as soon as the first real reports come in, a host of “synthetic” ice measurements for the past 150 years will be released, all of which will purport to show just how much thinner the ice is now than it has *ever* been before!
But at least this will establish a verifiable baseline for the future.
With proper adjustments to the data you can provide supporting evidence for any agenda. The accuracy depends on the group evaluating the data
RE: wws (09:35:28) :
(snip)
But at least this will establish a verifiable baseline for the future.
This is of course dependant upon the code in the programming and the intrepretation of incoming data WRT how Melt Ponding will be considered as either sea level or water above sea level.
“CryoSat-2’s radar altimeter is able to measure the freeboard of sea ice…”
As a canoeist, I love this.
pgosselin (09:22:41) :
This satellite has unprecendented precision, and so we’ll be able to get an accurate photo of the situation in the polar regions. But the lifetime of this satellite is said to be 3 or 4 years, so I don’t see how it will be possible to infer longterm trends from its data.
My reading of ESA’s release is that they are not at all interested in long term trends:
“CryoSat’s original objective was to determine if there was a trend towards diminishing ice cover. There now seems little doubt that there are indeed trends – the challenge now is to characterise them.”
http://www.esa.int/esaLP/ESAOMH1VMOC_LPcryosat_0.html
And in order to “characterize” the diminishing ice cover, “CryoSat-2’s sophisticated instruments will measure changes at the margins of the vast ice sheets that lie over Greenland and Antarctica and in the marine ice floating in the polar oceans.”
The objectives of this mission appear to me to be extremely narrow, and so will their findings be.
If the thinness is good for AGW theory, the cry will be: “See, we told you.”
If the thickness is bad for AGW theory, the cry will be: “There’s something wrong with the satellite.”
Place your bets.
Original Mike (10:14:14) :
“CryoSat-2’s radar altimeter is able to measure the freeboard of sea ice…”
As a canoeist, I love this.
——————
Reply:
Me too–I have four of the craft. However, it got me to thinking, if I were sitting in one of my canoes and this thing went over, how could it infer my weight by measuring my canoe’s freeboard unless they knew what kind of canoe I was paddling. (The freeboard shapes are diffierent for all four of my craft.) Hmmmmm…
So far, the Arctic ice extent seems like it is doing just fine:
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_stddev_timeseries.png
This will be interesting to watch throughout the summer and as the CryoSat starts to generate data! Thanks, Anthony.
Well I hope it is able to figure out how thick all that buckled and piled up ice is.
Am i correct in assuming that this sea ice grows in the same fashion as epitaxial deposition works, so those slabs of ice, whose freeboard will be measured are perfectly flat top and bottom; so fromt he freeboard and the 9/10 or 10/11 ratio you can find the total thickness from top to bottom all over the complete sheet; totally marvellous.
It’s a long time since I did any elementary mechanics (statics); but if I remember correctly, since ice is less dense that sea water, the center of mass of the ice must be above the center of pressure; so those ice floes are inherently unstable, and during the course of their lifetime, they must do a whole lot of tipping; speaking of tipping; so I don’t see how they could in fact grow as a plano parallel layer of ice.
Ergo, they can’t be cosntant thickness throughout.
So what is it that the freeboard height is going to tell us again ?
Enquiring minds want to know.
But hey; I’m sure glad it is all apparently working properly. Congratulations to the team.
I’d like to point out that the mission duration might well not be 3-4 years. In a similar position, NASA will routinely declare a 3 yr mission, with hardware designed for a minimum of 5 years. This serves two purposes. First, NASA can declare a “successful” mission after only 3 years and will still look good even if the hardware fails prematurely at 4 years. This type of consideration is very important for bureaucrats. Second, they need include only the costs of data support and processing for 3 years in their initial budget requests, which makes the mission appear more palatable to the funding agencies. If the mission survives the 3 years, then they’ll go back and request money for an “extended mission”. Everything I know suggests that the same type of considerations apply in ESA also.
There’s the given. Now we just have to “characterize” the trend. In 1000 days.
Zeke the Sneak (10:22:53) And those margins we can forecast will be receding (during summertime, of course). It looks that everything has been decided in advance. We are the ones to be fooled, because WE ARE the fools and they the sages, so let us cheer them with lots of bubbling- CO2 and Coffee energized – kool-aid.
I wonder what will happen when CryoSat produces data that refutes AGW wrought shrinkage of polar ice caps? Can we ask the EU for our extorted climate taxes back?
pgosselin (09:22:41) :
This satellite has unprecendented precision, and so we’ll be able to get an accurate photo of the situation in the polar regions. But the lifetime of this satellite is said to be 3 or 4 years, so I don’t see how it will be possible to infer longterm trends from its data
But after 4 years the ice will all be gone, so there will not be a need for this sat.
Hopefully, they think, there is enough inertia in the oceans to keep the good ice melt going so that the clarion call for AGW Carbon-Cash Syphoning System in Nashville and Washington, and Wall Street get’s an irreversible head of steam on it. The gig ends when the ice returns to ‘normal’ but not before the Satellite ends operations. Standby for annoying headlines.
The participating Governments in this project all have a AGW agenda, like the Governments this satellite represents its agenda is basis.
Pretty cool, but,
How in the WORLD can they establish a “trend” with a satellite that only lives for 4 years? This is barely enough time to work out baselines and methods.
Hmm, I wonder if they’ll publish anything at all if the data contradicts the consensus mantra… Perhaps they will, since a 4 year dataset is easily discarded by climaxologists. On the flip side, if the ice is found to be evaporating, I’m sure the results will be warmly embraced. With all the scrutiny, and pressure to perform, they are experiencing difficulty maintaining the warming mood. Perhaps a bit of ice, in just the right places, will help keep the wilting thermometers upright.
enneagram (10:51:32) :
And those margins we can forecast will be receding (during summertime, of course).
You don’t think it could actually be worse than 2.7% per decade shrinkage…do you?!? 🙂
@RockyRoad: Good question. Canoe freeboard varies from the design (as well as the load). Ice shape probably doesn’t vary as much as canoe shape. Or maybe they’re just interested in the freeboard and not making judgements about the amount of ice below the surface.
I’m waiting for the press release next month declaring that the satellite proves that Arctic ice is melting at record rates.