As sea ice continues to succumb to the climate crisis, measuring its decline with precision has never been more urgent. To meet this challenge, the European Space Agency is developing three new Copernicus satellites, each employing distinct but complementary techniques to monitor this fragile component of the Earth system.

To ensure the data from these new satellites are razor-sharp, an international team of hardy scientists is now out on the Arctic sea ice braving the cold and flying above to collect critical in situ measurements.