In the last few years, ESA has initiated a significant number of activities in different areas of Polar and cryosphere science. These activities comprise scientific studies, development of applications, novel mission concept studies, and campaigns. With the belief that it would had been extremely beneficial to establish a technical forum for all teams involved and …
The P-TEP provides a complete working environment where users can access algorithms and data remotely, providing computing resources and tools that they might not otherwise have, avoiding the need to download and manage large volumes of data. This new approach removes the need to transfer large Earth Observation data sets around the world, while increasing the analytical power available to …
Polar regions are undergoing major and drastic changes with significant impact at global scale. Addressing this unique set of global challenges will require more than ever that scientists advance their understanding of the different drivers governing changes in Polar regions, its associated processes and its potential impacts and translate that knowledge into solutions for society, …
The recent IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere highlights how we all depend on oceans and ice, and how they are intrinsic to the health of our planet – but stresses the many ways in which they are being altered by climate change. Read the full article
The multi-disciplinary, long-term, satellite-based Earth Observations (EO) form a tremendous synergy of data and information products that should to be more systematically and consistently explored, from the short synoptic time scales to the longer decadal time scales. This lays the rationale for the ESA funded Arktalas Hoavva study project. A stepwise multi-modal analyses framework approach …
Ice sheets are a key component of the Earth system, impacting on global sea level, ocean circulation and bio-geochemical processes. Significant quantities of liquid water are being produced and transported at the ice sheet surface, base, and beneath its floating sections, and this water is in turn interacting with the ice sheet itself. Surface meltwater …
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average, with consequences felt across the whole planet. A better scientific understanding of the complexities of the fragile Arctic environment is critical for policy decisions on climate-change mitigation and adaptation, and for setting up a framework for managing Arctic development sustainably. The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory …
Lack of in-situ measurements of ice temperature (boreholes) limit our capabilities to understand ice sheet dynamics. Researchers combined L-band (1.4 GHz) passive microwave observations from SMOS over Antarctica with glaciological and emission models to infer information on glaciological properties of the ice sheet at various depths, including temperature. Comparison with existing models showed that differences …
In recent years the possibility of using L-band space-borne radiometers for monitoring the Cryosphere has been investigated using data available from new space missions ((ESA SMOS and NASA Aquarius and SMAP). The interest in L-band relies on the very low absorption of ice at L-band and the low scattering by particles that are very small …
ESA’s Earth System Data Lab is a new virtual lab to access a wide array of Earth observations across space, time and variables. It consists of two elements: the data cube and an interface to execute different analyses on the data cube. Young researchers selected in the Early Adopters Call launched in 2018 used the …
