00.37 Start A-roll
03.34 Cryosat Graphics
04.38 GVs Cryosat in Cleanroom
06.07 GVs ice masses
07.30 GVs Hurricane Katrina aftermath Copyright ITN: cleared for use until 20 october 2005 only
08.05 Archive: Rokot preparations and launch
09.08 GVs ESA's Kiruna Ground Station, Sweden
09.38 Set-ups and Interview Malcolm Davidson, ESA Earth and Science Division
11.32 Set-ups and Interview Duncan Wingham, Cryosat Project Scientist, University College London
13.23 contacts

Cryosat ready for launch A roll
Date 12.09.05
Global warming is an accepted fact of life. But could it really have disastrous effects on our climate? To answer this question we need to look the Earth's oceans and polar ice caps.
The European Space Agency, ESA, is doing exactly this with its newest satellite, Cryosat. It will accurately measure global ice masses and assess whether they really are thinning over time.
10:01:09 I/V Malcolm Davidson, ESA Earth Science Division: Cryosat is very important, because being able to measure the ice thickness changes so accurately and over the entire North and South poles means then we can predict what will happen to the oceans in the future, whether they will rise significantly or whether they will heat up significantly and this has an impact on climate, on flooding and all of these aspects which are very important for the future of our world.
Developed and built over 6 years, Cryosat is the first of ESA's Earth Explorer missions - a series of projects that aim to g