Cryosat mission restarts near-real-time data service

BBC : The European Space Agency’s Cryosat mission has been monitoring Arctic sea ice for the past six years. Earlier this year the program made near-real-time ice coverage data available online, but had to suspend the service in May because the technique that the satellite uses to measure sea-ice thickness does not work well during the summer melt season. Now that the Arctic has begun cooling, the service has restarted, with data available for the most recent two-day, two-week, and four-week periods. To gauge the extent of ice melt during the summer, researchers look at the amount of ice present during the first two weeks of October. This year the satellite measured a sea-ice volume of roughly 6200 km³ during that period. That is less ice than was measured during the same period in either 2013 or 2014, but greater than that measured in 2010, 2011, or 2012.