ESA Earth Explorers’ Post

🧊 CryoSat's incredible 16+ year ice record is now even better 🧊 Our record-breaking ice mission continues to deliver thanks to a new and improved record of ice sheet elevation and elevation change from CryoSat observations between 2010 and 2025. The data were validated against over 3 million ICESat-2 measurements, finding close agreement within a few centimetres (median differences in elevation rates of 0.01–0.02 m/yr, and 84% of assessed data agreeing to within 0.1 m/yr). Improving the accuracy of the historic global ice sheet record is critical for estimating future sea level rise, and provides a better benchmark for those studying and modelling ice loss. In a paper introducing this new dataset, a case study of Kangerlussuaq Glacier, Greenland (imaged below by Sentinels 1 and 2) provides a concrete example of improved monitoring of a rapidly changing glacier, resulting in a more consistent elevation-change time series with lower standard deviation. CryoSat's continuous, unbroken record spanning over 16 years and counting provides us with an invaluable set of data to digest and understand the magnitude and drivers of contemporary ice sheet mass loss during a period of rapid climate change. You can get your hands on it, too, thanks to Cryo-TEMPO! 💡 More on CryoSat data and where to find it: https://lnkd.in/eaYUbZRD 🗞️ Read the paper: https://lnkd.in/eA2tq5-8 📊 More on Cryo-TEMPO: https://lnkd.in/ec-a8znQ 🗞️ Thanks to UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling and Qi Huang, Mal McMillan and Karla Boxall (Lancaster Environment Centre). 🖼️1&3: Contain modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2026; 2021