Hello!

We are Rachel Tilling and Tom Armitage, PhD students at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, University College London. We are taking part in the European Space Agency’s CryoVEx 2014 field campaign – an international effort to make ground and airborne measurements of the sea ice north of Greenland to validate the ESA CryoSat-2 satellite. We will be accompanied by Ewan Shilland (UCL Geography) as we make our way to the northern tip of Greenland and eventually onto the frozen Arctic Ocean itself.

The CryoSat-2 satellite carries a unique radar altimeter, purpose-built to make accurate measurements of sea ice thickness from space. It has been widely reported in the media that sea ice extent (area of the ocean covered by sea ice) in the Arctic has been declining over the past few decades. When combined with measurements of thickness made by CryoSat-2 we can estimate the total volume of the sea, and as the mission progresses we will be able to chart changes in the sea ice volume over time - the satellite was launched in 2010, and is still going healthy.

One of the largest remaining uncertainties with CryoSat-2 measurements is the interaction of the radar on the satellite with the layer of snow on top of the sea ice. The main purpose of our experiment is to try to better understand this interaction and reduce this uncertainty. We will make ground-based and airborne radar measurements in conjunction with tradition ‘dig a hole’-type measurements as the satellite passes overhead, so that we can compare the situation on the ground with what the satellite is seeing.

In this blog we are going to share our experiences over the next 6 weeks or so, as we prepare for the campaign, travel to Greenland, plan our experiments, make our measurements and everything in between.