The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
Satellite radar altimeters make use of the fact that the echoes received are sensitive to the type of surface. For example, echoes from leads generate mirror-like signals while more diffuse echoes result from ice floes. This image, which is an overlay of CryoSat data on top of imagery acquired by Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar on 9 November 2010, clearly shows that echoes received by CryoSat correspond to leads separating the floes of ice.