Article Posted on : - Apr 08, 2010

Side view of CryoSat. ESA photo

BERLIN (AP): The European Space Agency is launching a satellite that scientists hope will help them pin down the effects of global warming on the Earth's ice packs more precisely.

The CryoSat 2 mission which starts on Thursday after years of delays, will be able to pinpoint details of changes in polar ice so scientists can better understand the alarming picture of the world's retreating ice caps.

Although most scientists agree that global warming is significantly affecting the Earth's ice sheets, many also say too little is known with certainty, and that is where the CryoSat 2 mission aims to help.

"We hope to find out more about the role the sea ice plays for the climate system and more about the height of the land ice," Heinrich Miller, one of the two CryoSat project directors, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

"We know that it is dwindling but we don't know exactly what mechanisms are at work," the glacial scientist said.

CryoSat 2 will be the only satellite that can deliver the necessary data, Miller said.

Earlier satellites helped lay the groundwork for decades worth of research on the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, but those have gone out of operation without being replaced in time, Miller said.