Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Watch the Delta II rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California

The American space agency has launched a laser into orbit to measure the condition of Earth's ice cover.

The satellite mission, called ICESat-2, should provide more precise information on how these frozen surfaces are being affected by global warming.

Antarctica, Greenland and the ice floating on the Arctic Ocean have all lost volume in recent decades.

ICESat-2 will track ongoing change in unprecedented detail from its vantage point some 500km above the planet.

The satellite was taken up by a Delta II rocket, flying out of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

As the name suggests, ICESat-2 is a follow-on project. The original spacecraft flew in the 2000s and pioneered the laser measurement of the height of polar glaciers and sea-ice from space. But the mission was plagued by technical problems that limited its observations to just a couple of months in every year.

Nasa has since re-modelled the technology, both to make it more reliable and to give it a sharper view.

"ICESat-2 is going to observe the cryosphere with a spatial resolution at the level we have never seen before from space," explained Prof Helen Fricker from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

"The beam is split across-track into six - three pairs - so we can map more of the ice surface as well as estimating the surface slope, which can confuse our interpretation of height changes.

"The orbit reaches to two degrees of the poles, and the same ground tracks are sampled every three months, giving us seasonal snapshots of ice height. From these data we can unravel the processes responsible for the ice loss in the polar regions," she told BBC News.

Image copyright NASA Image caption Artwork: ICESat-2 fires 10,000 shots a second as it moves around the Earth

Why is this mission important?

Antarctica and Greenland lose billions of tonnes of ice every year - the result largely of warm water being able to melt land glaciers where they meet the ocean. This wastage is slowly but surely pushing up sea-levels worldwide.

In the Arctic, the seasonal floes have also been in retreat. Sea-ice in the far north is thought to have lost two-thirds of its volume since the 1980s. And although this has no direct impact on the height of the oceans, the reduced ice-cover is working to amplify temperature rises in the region.

Much of the change that is occurring at the poles can present itself in quite subtle ways, says Dr Tom Neumann, Nasa's ICESat-2 deputy project scientist, and a very precise tool is needed to characterise it properly.

"An elevation change of just a centimetre over an ice sheet the scale of Antarctica represents a tremendous amount of water either gained to or lost by the ice sheet. 140 gigatonnes worth."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Tom Neumann: "IceSAT-2's laser is a totally different design"

How does ICESat-2 work?

Weighing half a tonne, the new laser system is one of the largest Earth-observation instruments ever built by Nasa. It uses a technique called "photon counting".

It fires about 10,000 pulses of light every second. Each of those shots goes down to the Earth and bounces back up on a timescale of about 3.3 milliseconds. The exact time equates to the height of the reflecting surface.

"We fire about a trillion photons (particles of light) in every shot. We get about one back," says Cathy Richardson, who works on the team at Nasa that developed the instrument.

"We can time that one photon when it comes back just as accurately as when it left the instrument. And from that we can calculate a distance to about half a centimetre on the Earth."

The laser is making a measurement every 70cm as it moves forward across the ice.

Image copyright NASA Image caption The $1bn mission is funded initially to run for three years

What new information will be revealed?

It is hoped that ICESat-2 can help produce the first robust maps of sea-ice thickness in the Antarctic. At the moment, the technique for assessing ice floes really only works in the Arctic.

It involves comparing the height of that part of the floating ice sticking above the water with the height of the ocean surface itself. Because scientists know the density of seawater and ice, they can then calculate how much ice must be submerged, and thus a total overall thickness.

In the Antarctic, though, this approach is problematic. In the far south, the ice floes can get covered in substantial dumps of snow. This will sometimes push the sea-ice fully under the water and confound the thickness calculation.

The proposed solution is to combine ICESat's laser observations, which reflect off the top of the snow surface, with those of radar satellites, whose microwave beams penetrate more deeply into the snow covering. This will reduce a lot of uncertainty.

Scientists need thickness measurements to properly access the status of floes. Sometimes the wind will spread the ice out; other times it will pile the ice up. The difference is only apparent when the ice is viewed in three dimensions.

And, no, the laser does not have the power to melt the ice from 500km up! But on a dark night you might just be able to see a green dot when ICESat flies overhead.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos</s>The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission team plans to switch to a backup system in the Microwave Instrument (MWI) on one of the twin spacecraft this month. Following the switch-over, GRACE-FO is expected to quickly resume science data collection.

Related Post:MUOS-3 launchedSecond ‘mini-shuttle’ launchedFirst WGS satellite launchedAtlas V launches six experimental military satellitesDelta IV launches third WGS satelliteSecond modernised GPS IIR satellite launchedLast DSP satellite placed in orbitSecond AEHF satellite launchedSovrn</s>Gov. Jerry Brown says California will move forward with plans to launch a satellite into space in order to monitor climate change. He made the announcement at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.

“With science still under attack and the climate threat growing, we’re launching our own damn satellite,” Brown said at the end of the summit. “This groundbreaking initiative will help governments, businesses, and landowners pinpoint — and stop — destructive emissions with unprecedented precision, on a scale that’s never been done before.”

The L.A. Times reports that the state will be developing the satellite alongside Planet Labs based out of San Francisco. The Earth-imaging company was founded in 2010 by a team of former NASA employees. The objective of the satellite is to monitor the buildup of pollutants.

Robbie Schingler, one of the company’s founders, says that he is hopeful that this satellite will provide instructive data regarding the usefulness of satellites for monitoring and working to combat climate change.

While this satellite is intended to help combat climate change, the state is open to launching others if this project is a success. However, Brown is set to leave office in 2019, so it will be up to his successor to follow through on his plans for a satellite. If the next governor doesn’t support the plan, it could become much harder to get off the ground.

Despite present support for the project, the first satellite is still several years away. Currently, the California Air Resources Board is working on developing the technologies and systems needed for the satellite to accurately monitor for pollutants. The data gathered by the satellite would then be made public through a partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that Brown has discussed the idea of California launching its own satellite. In the 1970s, he suggested launching one to help handle communications during emergencies. That project never got off the ground, but it followed Brown throughout his political career. He never quite got over the nickname “Governor Moonbeam,” but, then again, he has been re-elected several times, so maybe he no longer needs to fight it.</s>VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Sept. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket carrying NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) spacecraft lifted off from Space Launch Complex-2 on Sept. 15 at 6:02 a.m. PDT. This marks the final mission of the Delta II rocket, which first launched on Feb. 14, 1989, and launched 155 times including ICESat-2.

From its origin as the launch vehicle for the first Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to NASA's Earth observing, science and interplanetary satellites – including Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity – to vital commercial communication and imaging satellites, the Delta II rocket has truly earned its place in space history.

"ULA is proud that the Delta II rocket has been a significant piece of history, launching more than 50 missions for NASA," said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs. "I sincerely thank the entire ULA team, NASA, U.S. Air Force, and all of our partners and suppliers who have worked diligently to launch the final Delta II rocket, as well as the dedication of the teams throughout the past 29 years of the program."

ICESat-2 will provide scientists with height measurements to create a global portrait of Earth's third dimension, gathering data that can precisely track changes of terrain including glaciers, sea ice, forests and more. Northrop Grumman built the spacecraft. In addition to ICESat-2, this mission included four CubeSats which launched from dispensers mounted to the Delta II second stage.

This mission launched aboard a Delta II 7420-10 configuration rocket, which included a 10-foot-diameter payload fairing (PLF). The booster for this mission was powered by the RS-27A engine and the second stage was powered by the AJ10-118K engine.

This is ULA's seventh launch in 2018 and the 130th successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006.

ULA's next launch is the AEHF-4 mission for the U.S. Air Force on an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

With more than a century of combined heritage, United Launch Alliance is the nation's most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered 130 satellites to orbit that aid meteorologists in tracking severe weather, unlock the mysteries of our solar system, provide critical capabilities for troops in the field and enable personal device-based GPS navigation.

For more information on ULA, visit the ULA website at www.ulalaunch.com, or call the ULA Launch Hotline at 1-877-ULA-4321 (852-4321). Join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch, twitter.com/ulalaunch and instagram.com/ulalaunch.</s>NASA on Saturday will launch its most advanced laser device into space to measure changes in the heights of Earth’s polar ice, as well as other topographical features.

The Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, is scheduled to launch at 8:46 a.m. ET from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California.

A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket will carry ICESat-2 into orbit, where it will travel at speeds of more than 15,000 mph. The satellite will be equipped with an Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), which will send 10,000 laser pulses per second to Earth to measure the height of ice sheets, glaciers, forests and bodies of water. It will do this by calculating how long it takes for individual photons that leave the instrument to ricochet off Earth and return to the satellite.

NASA said the mission will add a “third dimension” to its study of Earth. Agency satellites already provide a constant stream of detailed images of the planet’s changing geographical features. ICESat-2 will add height measurements — accurate to a fraction of a centimeter — to the mix.

“The precise and complete coverage afforded by ICESat-2 will enable researchers to track changes in land and sea ice with unparalleled detail, which will inform our understanding of what drives these changes,” NASA said in a statement.

Scientists already know that global warming is causing polar ice to melt and sea levels to rise. This mission will reveal how quickly it is happening and where most of the melting is occurring. With that data, scientists can forecast its likely impact on the world.

Flying above the Arctic with NASA

ICESat-2 will “extend and improve” upon NASA’s initial ICESat mission, launched in 2003, the agency said in a statement.

Doug McLennan, ICESat-2 project manager, said in a mission briefing on Thursday that he expected the launch to occur as scheduled.

“It was a very challenging mission to come up with,” said McLennan. “The instrument, the ATLAS instrument, took longer than we thought. But now, everything is buttoned up and sitting on top of that rocket ready to go and we’re very, very excited.”</s>Sept. 15 (UPI) -- NASA's newest ice-measuring satellite was launched into orbit around Earth's poles on Saturday morning aboard the last flight of United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket.

ICESat-2 was carried into space at 6:02 a.m. PDT from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, NASA said. The scheduled time was 5:46 a.m. but it had a 40-minute launch window.

The spacecraft deployed its four solar panels and is drawing power, meaning it successfully went into orbit. It is orbiting the globe, pole to pole, at 17,069 mph from an average altitude of 290 miles.

Ground stations in Svalbard, Norway, acquired signals from the spacecraft.

The official name is NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2.

ICESat-2's only instrument is a laser system designed to measure the height of Earth's surface -- most importantly, sea ice's height. The sea ice's height will help scientists measure its thickness.

"ICESat-2 will let us get at the thickness by measuring the sea ice freeboard -- that's the height of the sea ice above the ocean," Tom Neumann, ICESat-2's deputy project scientist, told UPI. "A larger freeboard directly corresponds to a great sea ice thickness, given that we know the relative density of ocean water and ice."

Because the satellite's instrument can shoot six laser pulses -- not just one -- at high speeds, ICESat-2 will be able to observe changes in sea ice coverage and thickness in unprecedented detail. Scientists will be able to combine the new ice-related data with measurements captured by a variety of other satellites and instruments, helping scientists uncover hidden relationships between ice and other ocean and atmospheric phenomena -- wind, current, temperature, precipitation and more.

In addition to measuring minute changes in sea and land ice, ICE-Sat-2 will use its height-measuring lasers to track sea levels, ocean waves and forest canopies.

"Science often moves forward when scientists figure out new and more precise ways to measure things, and with ICESat-2, and that's exactly what we're going to do," NASA scientist Tom Wagner told UPI. "There's going to be a lot of unexpected science to come out of this mission."

The launch was ULA's Delta II rocket's 153rd success -- and its last because ULA is retiring the model. ULA will have to rely even more heavily on its workhorse rocket, the Atlas V.</s>Going out in style: Delta II completes its final mission with launch of ICESat-2

LOMPOC, Calif. — A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket left the pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 2 to send NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) into polar orbit, beginning a new era in Earth observation and ending the career of the venerable Delta II.

Liftoff took place at 6:02 a.m. PDT (9:02 a.m. EDT / 13:02 GMT) Sept. 15, 2018. This was about 16 minutes into the 2 hour, 34 minute launch window. During a planned hold in the countdown at T-4 minutes, the hold was extended briefly to address a temperature issue on the second stage. At 5:56 a.m. PDT (8:56 a.m. EDT / 12:56 GMT) NASA Launch Manager Tim Dunn gave final approval to resume the countdown.

“With this mission we continue humankind’s exploration of the remote polar regions of our planet and advance our understanding of how ongoing changes of Earth’s ice cover at the poles and elsewhere will affect lives around the world, now and in the future,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a NASA news release.

In the lead up to the final Delta II flight, mission and launch teams successfully concluded the Launch Readiness Review Sept. 13. The 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg indicated that there would be a zero percent chance of a weather rule violation.

ICESat-2 carries a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), which records how lake it takes for laser pulses to return to the spacecraft. In so doing, it can produce a precise “map” of the Earth’s surface.

The spacecraft was designed and built by Northrop Grumman and is derived from the LEOStar-3 satellite bus used for NASA’s Landsat 8, the GeoEye-1 Earth imaging satellite and NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. ICESat-2 has a design life of three years but carries enough fuel for up to seven years.

“While the launch today was incredibly exciting, for us scientists the most anticipated part of the mission starts when we switch on the laser and get our first data,” said Thorsten Markus, ICESat-2 project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in a NASA news release following liftoff. “We are really looking forward to making those data available to the science community as quickly as possible so we can begin to explore what ICESat-2 can tell us about our complex home planet.”

The detailed height measurements captured by ICESat-2 should enable researchers to precisely track changes on the surface, including glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice and forests. Because ATLAS is sensitive enough to detect individual photons, and with its rapid-firing rate, the instrument can detect both the forest floor and the tops of canopies in all but the densest forests and jungles.

Shortly after the Delta II 7420-10 rocket lifted off the pad, the vehicle made a pitchover maneuver to maintain a proper flight path while lessening dynamic forces on the launch vehicle.

The Delta II reached Mach 1 around 30 seconds into its flight and the moment of maximum dynamic pressure on the launch vehicle at the 46 second mark. The rocket’s four graphite epoxy motors were jettisoned 1 minute, 23 seconds into the flight.

Four minutes, 24 seconds into the flight, main engine cutoff occurred on the first stage. The rocket then entered a brief coast phase.

Separation of the first stage from the rocket’s second stage took place eight seconds later, followed by ignition of the second stage’s AJ10-188K engine 6 seconds after that.

The Delta II’s two-piece, 10-foot (3-meter) diameter payload fairing separated and was jettisoned 5 minutes into the flight. The first of four second stage engine cutoffs (SECO-1) occurred 10 minutes, 53 seconds after liftoff.

The second stage and satellite then entered a coast phase for about 36 minutes. At 47 minutes, 30 seconds into the flight the second stage engine reignited for a second burn, second stage engine cutoff two occurred 7 seconds later.

At 52 minutes, 40 seconds from liftoff, the second stage released the ICESat-2 satellite into orbit.

The spacecraft will now undergo a 60-day check-out period where the spacecraft and ATLAS instrument will be tested to make sure everything is functioning properly.

About 18 minutes after deployment, the second stage engine ignited for a third burn. The Third SECO occurred nearly 71 minutes into the mission.

About 1 hour, 16 minutes after liftoff, the second stage began deploying the mission’s secondary payload of four CubeSats: Cal Poly’s Damping And Vibrations Experiment (DAVE), UCLA’s two Electron Loss and Fields Investigation (ELFIN) CubeSats, and the University of Central Florida’s SurfSat.

These small satellites will conduct research on space weather, changing electric potential and resulting discharge events on spacecraft and damping behavior of tungsten powder in a zero-gravity environment.

The booster that lofted ICESat-2 was built four years ago and bore the number 381 on its side. For the early flights of the Delta II program, stars were placed on the rocket for every successful flight in a row. The stars were brought back for this flight. Delivering ICESat-2 to orbit was the 155th flight for the Delta II since its first launch on Feb. 14, 1989.

“The Delta II was a very reliable and very dedicated rocket for a long time,” Dane Drefke, mechanical operations lead engineer at ULA told SpaceFlight Insider. “People don’t realize how this little rocket has changed their lives.”

The Delta II rocket was created by McDonnell Douglas in the late 1980s to launch GPS satellites for the U.S. Air Force. Between 1989 and 2009, the Delta II successfully deployed four dozen navigational spacecraft to form and maintain the operational constellation.

It was on the GPS IIR-1 mission that the rocket encountered its most public failure. On Jan. 17, 1997, just 13 seconds after it had left the pad, the rocket’s number 2 solid rocket booster ruptured, resulting in an explosion and the total loss of the mission.

“Some of the newer rockets, like Vulcan, are a generation more advanced in technology,” said Drefke, who was worked on Delta II off and on for 22 years. He expressed sadness that its era had passed but believes the rocket’s mission was “absolutely well done.”

The Delta II has also been used for more than 50 NASA missions, including eight Mars missions between 1996 and 2007. The Delta II also launched other missions to explore our solar system including NASA’s MESSENGER mission to orbit Mercury and the Dawn spacecraft that explored Vesta and Ceres.

The launch vehicle was also selected to loft the Kepler observatory to discover exoplanets and the Spitzer Space Telescope that studies the universe in infrared.

“Godspeed, Delta II,” said a member of the launch team at the conclusion of the CubeSat deployments, “and thank you for your almost 30 years of unparalleled excellence.”

Following the successful flight, United Launch Alliance issued a statement that the last (unflown) Delta II rocket would be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, joining a number other retired launch vehicles at the tourist destination and serving to remind viewers of its many accomplishments.

“The Delta II rocket has been a venerable workhorse for NASA and civilian scientists, the U.S. military, and commercial clients throughout its almost 30 years of service,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO. “This program comes to a close with the final launch of NASA’s ICESat-2, but its legacy will continue and the Visitor Complex will help us keep the story of the success of this much-revered rocket in the hearts and minds of the public.”</s>VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- A NASA satellite designed to precisely measure changes in Earth's ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and vegetation was launched into polar orbit from California early Saturday.

A Delta 2 rocket carrying ICESat-2 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 6:02 a.m. and headed over the Pacific Ocean.

NASA Earth Science Division director Michael Freilich says that the mission in particular will advance knowledge of how the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica contribute to sea level rise.

The melt from those ice sheets alone has raised global sea level by more than 1 millimeter (0.04 inch) a year recently, according to NASA.

The mission is a successor to the original Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite that operated from 2003 to 2009. Measurements continued since then with airborne instruments in NASA's Operation IceBridge.

Built by Northrop Grumman, ICESat-2 carries a single instrument, a laser altimeter that measures height by determining how long it takes photons to travel from the spacecraft to Earth and back. According to NASA, it will collect more than 250 times as many measurements as the first ICESat.

The laser is designed to fire 10,000 times per second, divided into six beams of hundreds of trillions of photons. The round trip is timed to a billionth of a second.

In addition to ice, the satellite's other measurements, such as the tops of trees, snow and river heights, may help with research into the amount of carbon stored in forests, flood and drought planning and wildfire behaviour, among other uses.

The launch was the last for a Delta 2 rocket, United Launch Alliance said.

The first Delta 2 lifted off on Feb. 14, 1989, and since then it has been the launch vehicle for Global Positioning System orbiters, Earth observing and commercial satellites, and interplanetary missions including the twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.</s>NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) successfully launched from California at 9:02 a.m. EDT Saturday, embarking on its mission to measure the ice of Earth’s frozen reaches with unprecedented accuracy.

ICESat-2 lifted off from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base on United Launch Alliance’s final Delta II rocket. Ground stations in Svalbard, Norway, acquired signals from the spacecraft about 75 minutes after launch. It’s performing as expected and orbiting the globe, from pole to pole, at 17,069 mph from an average altitude of 290 miles.

“With this mission we continue humankind’s exploration of the remote polar regions of our planet and advance our understanding of how ongoing changes of Earth’s ice cover at the poles and elsewhere will affect lives around the world, now and in the future,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

ICESat-2 carries a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS). ATLAS will be activated approximately two weeks after the mission operations team completes initial testing of the spacecraft. Then ICESat-2 will begin work on its science objective, gathering enough data to estimate the annual height change of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to within four millimeters – the width of a pencil.

“While the launch today was incredibly exciting, for us scientists the most anticipated part of the mission starts when we switch on the laser and get our first data,” said Thorsten Markus, ICESat-2 project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “We are really looking forward to making those data available to the science community as quickly as possible so we can begin to explore what ICESat-2 can tell us about our complex home planet.”

The high-resolution data will document changes in the Earth’s polar ice caps, improve forecasts of sea level rise bolstered by ice sheet melt in Greenland and Antarctica, and help scientists understand the mechanisms that are decreasing floating ice and assess how that sea ice loss affects the ocean and atmosphere.

ICESat-2 continues the record of ice height measurements started by NASA’s original ICESat mission, which operated from 2003 to 2009, that were continued by the agency’s annual Operation IceBridge airborne flights over the Arctic and Antarctic, which began in 2009. Data from ICESat-2 will be available to the public through the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Goddard built and tested the ATLAS instrument, and manages the ICESat-2 mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Northrop Grumman designed and built the spacecraft bus, installed the instrument and tested the completed satellite. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch service acquisition, integration, analysis and launch management.</s>NASA just launched the most advanced laser device of its kind into space to measure changes to Earth’s polar ice in unprecedented detail.

The instrument, called ‘Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2’ (ICESat-2), will measure the average annual change of land ice covering Greenland and Antarctica to within the width of a pencil, capturing 60,000 measurements every second.

“The new observational technologies of ICESat-2 – a top recommendation of the scientific community in NASA’s first Earth science decadal survey – will advance our knowledge of how the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica contribute to sea-level rise,” said Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

READ MORE: ‘Uncharted territory’: Drastic climate change in 2016 will continue this year – report

ICESat-2 launched into orbit aboard the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket shortly after 9am ET on Saturday from the Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California. The satellite will travel at about 15,000mph using its Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) to send 10,000 laser pulses per second to Earth.

“The precise and complete coverage afforded by ICESat-2 will enable researchers to track changes in land and sea ice with unparalleled detail, which will inform our understanding of what drives these changes,” said NASA in a statement.

ICESat-2 will “extend and improve” upon their efforts to track the effects of global warming. NASA has been monitoring the change in polar ice height for 15 years, since launching the first ICESat mission in 2003. The agency started its airborne research campaign in 2009 with Operation IceBridge, which kept track of the accelerating rate of change.

“Because ICESat-2 will provide measurements of unprecedented precision with global coverage, it will yield not only new insight into the polar regions, but also unanticipated findings across the globe,” said Thorsten Markus, an ICESat-2 project scientist at Goddard. According to him, the capacity and opportunity for true exploration is immense.

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The United Launch Alliance successfully launches NASA's ICESat-2 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The satellite will provide more precise information on Earth's polar ice caps. It is the final mission for the Delta II rocket.