Ludwig Schröder and Undine Strößenreuther from TU Dresden on their way to Antarctica for ESA’s CryoSat mission. (credits: TU Dresden)
Despite the high summer temperatures in South Africa, we carried hats and thick gloves in our luggage as we checked in for a flight from Cape Town yesterday, continuing our journey to Antarctica.
We are two geodesists from the Institut für Planetare Geodäsie at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany and we are heading for the Schirmacher Oasis in central Dronning Maud Land.
Once there, we will spend almost three months in a field camp, and will actually spend some of the time camping in tents out on the ice.
Using geodetic GPS equipment installed on snowmobiles our main task is to precisely determine the height of the ice surface.
The ice-surface height and ice-surface structure data we gather will be compared with measurements from ESA’s CryoSat satellite.
Observations from CryoSat’s altimeter provide one important source of data to be able to determine the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet and the associated sea-level change, which is an important indicator of global climate change.
The ground-based data we collect will be used to assess the satellite mission’s accuracy and reliability, and to calibrate its measurements.
Our field work will be carried out on behalf of ESA and in close cooperation with colleagues from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and
Marine Research (Bremerhaven, Germany), who will take measurements from an aircraft over same area.
We hope to report on our work and the everyday life on the ice, and a ‘white
Christmas’ is pretty much guaranteed!
Post from: experienced polar scientist Ludwig Schröder and master student Undine Strößenreuther (TU Dresden) … en route to Antarctica.
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