Less Arctic ice means higher risks, ex...(lo Clemente-Coln Chief Scientist at the ...)

Date:10/26/2007

lo Clemente-Coln, Chief Scientist at the US National Ice Center and International Ice Charting Working Group (IICWG) member, said. "Furthermore, because of satellite monitoring we will be able with a high-degree of precision to indicate if the trend is reversing, continuing or worsening."

The reduction in the sea ice extent has been much faster than global climate models predict. According to Douglas Bancroft, Director of the Canadian Ice Service, the record reduction in 2007 stunned the international operational ice charting community: "The overall extent was similar to what some of the models envisioned but decades in advance of when they expected that would occur. In fact, the summer of 2007 looked very similar to some climate model forecasts for 2030 to 2050."

Helge Tangen, Regional Director of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, says satellite data are also important for continually updating models. "We are now making more sophisticated models forecasting the ice in the short range. Analysts use the satellite-derived data and put that into the models, which gives them a very good start compared to what we had before."

Satellites for ice services

"With the introduction of space-based systems designed specifically for remote sensing of ice, it is clear that satellites are now the backbone of ice services around the world," Bancroft said. "We primary rely on active radar satellite instruments operating at C-band, such as the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) aboard Canadas RADARSAT-1 and the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) aboard ESAs Envisat."

The continuity of these missions, as represented by the forthcoming launches of RADARSAT-2 and the series of GMES Sentinel satellites being developed by ESA, is essential to maintaining operational ice services in the immediate future, Bancroft said.

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Contact: Mariangela D'Acunto mariangela.dacunto@esa.int 39-069-418-0856 European Space Agency Source:Eurekalert

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