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Climate
Change students help CryoSat-2 Arctic campaign
28 April 2006
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Measuring
snow and ice properties as part of the CryoVEx validation
activities in Greenland supporting the CryoSat-2 mission.
Credits: ESA
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In an unusual step,
European scientists participating in the ESA CryoSat validation
experiment on the Greenland ice sheet will soon be joined by six
students from the Climate Change College. The students will be
given an exciting opportunity to take part in an extensive
programme of field experiments in preparation for the CryoSat-2
mission.
"Having these students take part in
CryoSat campaign activities is the result of a unique
collaboration between ESA and the Climate Change College,"
said Malcolm Davidson, CryoSat Validation Manager. "The
students will contribute to the fieldwork by taking and analysing
snow and ice samples on the ground along side the UK scientists
already in place. Not only will the students gain first-hand
knowledge of how important scientific fieldwork is carried out,
but they will also gain a deeper insight into the importance of
ESA's CryoSat-2 mission to better monitor and understand
environmental changes, in particular, changes in ice cover in the
polar regions. It should prove a wonderful experience."
The go-ahead to build and launch the
CryoSat-2 mission came in February 2006 after the loss of the
first CryoSat last October due to a launch failure. The mission's
objectives remain the same as before – to measure ice
thickness on both land and sea very precisely to provide
conclusive proof as to whether there a trend towards diminishing
polar ice cover, furthering our understanding of the relationship
between ice and global climate.
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Artist's
impression of the CryoSat spacecraft in orbit. Artist's
impression of CryoSat.
The
launch of the CryoSat spacecraft was unfortunately aborted on
8 October 2005 due to a malfunction of its Rockot launcher,
which resulted in the total loss of the spacecraft.
At
the latest meeting of the European Space Agency's Earth
Observation Programme Board, which took place at ESA’s
Headquarters in Paris on 23 and 24 February 2006, ESA
received the green light from its Member States to build and
launch a CryoSat recovery mission, CryoSat-2.
Credits:
ESA - AOES Medialab
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There is more to the
CryoSat mission than engineering and the launch and operation of
the satellite - just as important to its success is making sure
that changes in ice thickness with time, measured by CryoSat,
have the highest possible accuracy. Despite state-of-the-art
technology on board, there are still a number of potential
sources of error that could creep into the data, which stem from
the complex nature of ice and snow.
It is known, for instance, that
the signal the satellite receives is sensitive to changes in the
properties of the snow and ice. Therefore it is crucial to
understand, and then correct for, the seasonal changes that occur
naturally. Long-term changes due to climate change can then be
determined with the highest possible precision.
With the confirmation that
CryoSat-2 will go ahead, validating the CryoSat measurements
remain of utmost importance. Validation activities generally
require both ground experiments to understand and map the
properties of the sea- and land-ice surface layers and airborne
measurements that simulate CryoSat radar altimeter acquisitions.
For this experiment, an Air Greenland Twin Otter coordinated by
the Danish National Space Centre is responsible for airborne
acquisitions and uses the ASIRAS radar altimeter on-board to
simulate CryoSat measurements. Following the experiment, the data
will be processed and compared to the in-situ measurements on the
ground.
"The key to the success of
the campaign activities is to coordinate all the ground and
airborne experiments. This means, for instance, that the planes
have to fly very precise tracks so that the measurements taken
from the plane match those taken by the scientists on the ground.
If we are more than 10 metres off track, all the data and efforts
are wasted," stated Sine Hvidegaard from the Danish National
Space Centre. “This is quite a challenge for us.”
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Marc
Cornelissen
Credits:
XMARX
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Led by Dutch polar explorer
Marc Cornelissen, the students from the Climate Change College
will set up camp next week on the ice at point T05 on the EGIG
(Expédition Glaciologique Internationale Groenland) line.
With around 15 years experience exploring the Arctic, Cornelissen
is passionate about the polar environment and dedicated to
bringing about awareness of the environment and contributing to a
better understanding of climate change. Born in 1968, Marc
Cornelissen completed his studies in 1995 at the Technical
University in Delft in the Netherlands, after which he decided
to start a career as a professional adventurer and
expedition organiser.
He has
experience in making expeditions into many remote regions. His
projects have taken him to the Peruvian cloud forests, the Gibson
Desert of Australia, and more often than not, to the Earth's
polar regions. He is one of the few who has reached both the
Geographic North and South Pole on skis (in 1997 and 2000
respectively). This is what led him to initiate the Climate
Change College, which is sponsored by Ben & Jerry's –
the ice cream company, and supported by the WWF.
The
aim of the college is to give students the opportunity to
experience first-hand the fragile environment of the Arctic and
the skills to be 'ambassadors' with the task of inspiring
businesses and the public to address the issue of climate change.
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Greenland
showing the EGIG (Expédition Glaciologique
Internationale Groenland) line and site T05. This is the
location where the Climate Change College students will
participate in CryoVEx validation activities at the beginning
of May 2006. The EGIG line crosses the central Greenland ice
sheet and since it was first traversed in 1959 has been the
site of various scientific surveys.
Credits: ESA
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Cornelissen stated that, "I
really look forward to taking the students to a region where
climate change is affecting the local Inuit culture and where
scientists work under challenging conditions to better understand
the scale and global impacts of climate change. This experience
is exactly what they need to become convincing climate change
ambassadors."
Cornelissen has already been
involved in CryoSat validation work, when last year, during his
Pole Track 2005 expedition to the North Pole he collected a set
of snow depth measurements following a protocol that had been
developed with ESA.
Cornelissen and the students
are currently making their way to the Arctic; their first stop
will be Kangerlussuaq in Greenland then through to Ilulissat and
arrive at T05 on 3 May
Source / Credit: ESA
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