Climate change - Earth explorers

CryoSat is one of ESA’s Earth Explorer satellites, research missions dedicated to specific aspects of our atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and the Earth’s interior.

ESA’s Earth Explorers are a series of research-oriented missions in direct response to issues identified by the scientific community, to improve our understanding of how the Earth system works and the impact that human activity is having on natural Earth processes.

Six current missions are studying the gravity field, soil moisture and ocean salinity, atmospheric dynamics, the magnetic field and the interaction between clouds, aerosols and radiation Earth Explorers are also designed to demonstrate breakthrough technology in observing techniques.