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The Canadian Geomatics Environmental Scan and Value Study Summary Report provides highlights and key results from two major bodies of work carried out by Hickling Arthurs Low Corporation on behalf of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). This research represents the most comprehensive assessment of geomatics and geospatial information in Canada to date.

Geospatial information (GI) identifies “where” natural, built or cultural objects are located relative to the Earth – in other words, their geographic location. Combining location with other forms of data allows for better and more informed decision making.

GI is used in a wide variety of applications:

  • by business – e.g. transportation, construction, retail and marketing, utilities, natural resource management;
  • by government – e.g. property rights and boundaries, elections, weather, asset management, emergency response;
  • by universities and colleges – e.g. research;
  • by not-for-profit organizations – e.g. conservation; monitoring; and
  • by consumers – e.g. social networking, leisure, tourism, shopping.

The Geomatics Sector produces GI and makes the production and use of GI possible for others through geospatial services and technologies. The Sector includes organizations from industry, government and academic institutions that:

  • create or capture geospatial data (e.g. through surveying, digitization, satellites); process, analyze and/or display GI;
  • deliver location-based services; and/or
  • develop geospatial technologies (e.g. sensors, positioning systems).

What does the summary report tell us?

  • In 2013, about 2,450 private sector geomatics firms contributed $2.3 billion to the Canadian economy.
  • The use of geospatial information contributed $20.7 billion – or 1.1% of national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), $19 billion to Real Income, and generated approximately 19,000 jobs to the Canadian economy in 2013. Regional distributions of GDP and Real Income by region are available in the report.
  • The uptake of “open” geospatial data (data available a minimal or no cost and for use without restriction) provides an estimated additional $695 million to GDP and $635 million in real income in 2013.
  • National scale productivity impact estimates attributed to the use of geospatial information (measured by percentage change in industry output) are most significant (>1.0%) for:
    - mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction (4.54%)
    - transportation and warehousing (1.64%)
    - utilities (1.58%)
    - public administration (1.51%)
    - construction (1.23%)
    - agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (1.22%)
    - management of companies and enterprises (1.08%)
    - Fourteen (14) case studies carried out as part of the Study describe important, but hard-to-measure social and environmental benefits, like:
    - improved health and safety for employees;
    - more effective deployment of public health campaigns;
    - increased competitive advantage for companies;
    - more livable cities;
    - better coordination and planning for asset management;
    - more of the “right” habitats conserved;
    - more effective assessment of risks;
    - and many more…

Download the Summary Report

@ The Parliament. Written by Constanze Krehl on 10 March 2016 in Opinion. Space technologies are instrumental to safeguarding our planet, writes Constanze Krehl.

With the Galileo and Copernicus programmes, the development of the EU’s space capabilities is heading in the right direction.

However, further development of the European space programme must be addressed at all levels.

As opinion rapporteur for the research and industry committee, my focus is on the civilian use of these services.

Civilian possibilities – such as weather observation for the evaluation of climate change, supporting agricultural cultivation for combating famine, but also early detection of natural disasters – are crucial.

The two key objectives of this report are to maintain security, not just here on earth, but also in space. To reach these objectives, we should use technological space systems monitoring the earth’s surface and space surveillance telescope systems in space.

These measures are intended to allow an early detection of dangers from space, for example through near-earth objects, adverse space weather that could pose a threat to our planet, or increasing quantities of space debris. Eliminating and preventing of space debris must be included in the strategy to ensure Europe’s safety.

The EU must strengthen its cooperation with the member states, the European Space Agency and other stakeholders.

About the author

Constanze Krehl (S&D, DE) is Parliament’s industry, research and energy committee opinion rapporteur on space capabilities for European security and defence

“Source:“https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/opinion/eu-space-policy-should-focus-civilian-possibilities

@ The Parliament. Written by Jerzy Buzek on 2 February 2015 in Opinion. Promoting the European space market will do wonders both for EU competitiveness and the imagination of teenagers everywhere, writes Jerzy Buzek.

When I was 15, Poland’s first – and to date, biggest – space observatory was built in my home region. Each visit in this new Silesian planetarium was a real feast for my teenage imagination, even if back in 1955 imagining that man would travel to space seemed as utopian as the thought that a Pole would be writing these words as a committee chair in the European parliament. In the following decades, we explored much more of outer space. Today, space programmes remain crucial for many areas of our economy, our environment and our security.

EU space policy deserves a long-term vision, built together and followed by all stakeholders. We should bear in mind that the space sector is not a standard industrial sector; it is of great strategic importance. Institutional customers play a very important role – the market is not completely open. However, like all other sectors, it is changing fast – new technologies and new players mean greater competition.

“Space infrastructure – in terms of innovative telecommunications, observation or navigation, for example – even if it is built for civil purposes, has the capacity to serve European surveillance, security and defence projects”

A key challenge in the coming years will be the implementation of the Galileo and Copernicus programmes, as well as the space surveillance and tracking support framework. Galileo will give us our own navigation and positioning system, and it will play a growing role in many sectors such as energy, transport, fisheries, civil engineering, emergency services and more. Copernicus will provide continuous data on pollution and global warming. The space surveillance and tracking (SST) framework will help us tackle the dangers of space debris and avert disruption risks.

We must promote a greater European space market, both institutionally and privately. Not only will it generate wealth and jobs, it will also support space manufacturing and help maintain political and financial commitment to space programmes. Following the commission’s legislative proposal for creating an internal market in commercial earth observation data, parliament is beginning work on this file. Non-legislative ways to strengthen the market should also be used, so that European space programmes serve EU public policy, and so that space policy is mainstreamed in as many policy areas as possible – in telecoms, transport, agriculture, to name but a few.

There is also a need for high levels of investment in research and development and innovation. There needs to be greater coordination between the EU, the European space agency and the member states. Parliament called for a joint ‘research roadmap’ in an excellent report on space industrial policy published in 2013. The EU should also focus on critical technologies. We should assess how to support access to space and develop a European launcher. Additionally, we must review the rules on procurement, in order to better take into account the specificities of the space sector.

Space infrastructure – in terms of innovative telecommunications, observation or navigation, for example – even if it is built for civil purposes, has the capacity to serve European surveillance, security and defence projects. Let us therefore remember that investments in this sector are not an extravagance but a necessity. Finally, our space programme can boost not only Europe’s industrial competitiveness and safety of the world’s citizens, but also the imagination of many generations of teenagers who will be coming to observatories to explore, learn and marvel.

About the author

Jerzy Buzek (EPP, PL) is chair of parliament’s industry, research and energy committee

Source

@ The Parliament. Written by Elżbieta Bieńkowska on 7 March 2016 in Opinion. The EU is losing its competitive edge within the space sector, but the Commission has a plan to remedy this, writes Elżbieta Bieńkowska.

The EU space sector is a motor for innovation and economic growth. It is an essential pillar of the Europe 2020 strategy, which aims to strengthen industrial competitiveness, create highly skilled jobs and boost innovation all over Europe and well beyond the space sector. EU space policy is first and foremost about bringing benefits to citizens.

The space industry has the potential to create new jobs, boost growth and stimulate investment, in particular through the development of downstream services in the emerging sectors of global navigation and earth observation. These services will soon become possible, as the European space infrastructures of the Galileo and Copernicus programmes become operational.

A strong space industrial base and an adequate legislative framework are prerequisites for developing strong space-based services. To further support this strategic industry in preserving and strengthening its competitiveness on the global market, we must address its main challenges.

Globally, competition is building up from both established and emerging space powers. Space activities are be becoming increasingly internationalised and globalised. The environment is changing, and changing fast.

The European space industry is highly dependent on commercial markets; it has to rely on smaller budgets and smaller institutional markets than our competitors, including smaller defence markets and less developed synergies between the civil and defence sectors. Technological independence, security of supply and independent access to space are not fully guaranteed.

Elsewhere, new business models are emerging that benefit from private financing alternatives, which are more developed and adapted to support space innovation than in Europe.

The first satellites for Copernicus and Galileo have been deployed and services are beginning to come online, but the market uptake of both of these needs to be secured for new business opportunities. In parallel, infrastructure is needed to handle the enormous flow of data they will produce and we must prepare the next generation of both of these programmes.

Therefore, within the current multi-annual financial framework (MFF), the overall funding for EU space programmes will be more than doubled, to about €12bn for 2014-2020, compared to €5.2bn for 2007-2013. This is alongside support efforts on the part of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the member states.

In comparison to other players in space, the European institutional expenditure is still relatively small. The funding level in Europe is less than a quarter of that of the US.

While the EU represents 13 per cent of global space budgets, compared to 57 per cent for the US. Increased spending in other parts of the world is pushing Europe lower in the ranks. Given this challenging context, we need to optimise the use of all existing EU funding opportunities.

We should not simply rely on space programmes, but also make use of the European fund for strategic investments, or programmes such as the European programme for SMEs (COSME), to unleash the full potential of the European space industry.

The Commission is committed to fostering the right environment to enable this sector to remain competitive in the years to come. Future EU spending on space policy will be based on the economic rationale of a desired return on investment through economic activities, innovation and new services that can be developed.

At the same time, it is important to attract new players to the space industry and open up new market opportunities for space-based applications and services. For this to happen, we need to develop a clear strategic vision together with all the stakeholders.

This year, the Commission will present ‘A space strategy for Europe’. The fact that this initiative was included among the Commission’s key priorities for 2016 clearly shows the importance of the space sector for Europe as a driver for growth, competitiveness and jobs.

The strategy will, among other things, address the market uptake of Galileo. For Copernicus, the strategy will focus on robust data dissemination architecture, new business models and promoting the use of space data by end users.

But beyond Galileo and Copernicus, we will look at the framework conditions and industrial policy tools that we have to foster new market opportunities, particularly in the downstream sectors. There is a tremendous economic potential we want Europe’s industry to tap into. This concerns big companies as well as SMEs and start-ups.

We must also analyse and discuss potential new initiatives to address the global challenges in areas such as space, defence and security, or space and climate change. We will examine how the competitiveness of European industry could be strengthened on the global market.

And finally, we want to look into the conditions for autonomous European access to space. As a global political player, access to space is a priority for the EU and will become even more so in the future.

This strategy will be developed in full transparency and in collaboration with all our strategic partners – the member states, ESA and industry.

The Commission will put in place a broad and inclusive consultation process with all stakeholders, including an online consultation.

To conclude, 2016 will be an important year for European space policy. We will continue to develop Galileo and Copernicus’ constellation, prepare their future market uptake and address several strategic questions. Our objective is to position Europe as a main global space actor. I count on all the European space actors to reach this common goal.

About the author
Elżbieta Bieńkowska is European internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs Commissioner

Source

@ The Parliament. Written by Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski on 8 March 2016 in Opinion. Space technologies have huge potential, and should be priorities on the European policymaking agenda, says Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski.

Over the past 50 years, Europe has had many successes on the space market. The most recent example is the Rosetta satellite mission, which was tasked with entering into a comet’s orbit and releasing a module, which landed on its surface.

Member states are aware of the potential of space technologies, but it’s important to reiterate the impact these could have on economic development improving overall quality of life, as well as the assurance of widely understood security.

In the report I worked on in Parliament’s security and defence subcommittee, I drew special attention to this last element, which is often omitted.

The EU adopted its space strategy in 2007, and thanks to the treaty on the functioning of the European Union, it has competences in the creation and support of space policy.

The most important EU space programmes are the satellite navigation system Galileo and Earth observation system Copernicus. They both differ a great deal: the altitude, the life-span of the satellites, the tasks they undertake, as well as the level of implementation.

However, they are mutually compatible and together have a huge potential to ensure widely understood security in Europe.

Galileo is the world’s only entirely civil satellite navigation system. The US GPS system and Russia’s GLONASS, for example – the two biggest projects of this type – are military ventures.

However, Galileo can also be useful from security point of view. The creators of Galileo’s architecture foresaw services in the framework of public regulated service that will be available free of charge to governments and member states’ governmental agencies. Its signal will also be of use within the security sphere. In addition, this will take some pressure off GPS.

In recent times, this has experienced issues with proper timing, which could in turn lead to inaccurate positioning. This proves how important Galileo is, and not just within a European context. The whole system will be fully operational in 2020.

Copernicus, the second EU flagship system, offers other interesting and important capabilities. Its constellation of dedicated satellites, so called sentinels, will provide important observation information on changes in climate, border traffic, the maritime situation, humanitarian aid, or improving the quality of transport.

The data will be shared between a plethora of institutions, ranging from research institutes, meteorological stations to early warning agencies, or agencies preoccupied with migration. Some of these services are already being delivered by Copernicus.

Member states have long cooperating on space-related issues. Common initiatives, in a range of spheres, have been developed by the UK, France, German, Italy and Greece. Recently, the national space agencies of Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary joined the ESA.

More and more European capitals are developing an interest in space technology, and its importance for economic growth, improving quality of life and security. Aside from purely European cooperation, we should also emphasise the need for closer and deeper cooperation with the US, including within the Nato framework. Their valuable experience can only benefit us.

My report also looks at future space technology strategies. These technologies must be included among priority initiatives when it comes to both research and development and security.

We must draw attention to the capabilities of European satellite systems in the new EU global strategy for foreign and security policy, which will be presented in June.

Long-term programming will also require proper budgetary planning. Ensuring continuous and adequate financing is a condition sine qua non for EU space programmes. These projects must also be properly advertised.

Their applications are many, but the usage level of their capabilities and services will depend on how they are promoted. One should not forget about an overall business picture. The space sector is largely dependent on institutional procurement.

The space race era was started by the governments of strong states. However, with time, the commercial use of satellite technologies has gained importance. In 2014, commercial launches constituted 25 per cent of all launches. As many as six out of 11 European launches were ordered by private companies.

World revenues from space activities reached €230bn in 2015, while global expenditure was at €73bn, demonstrating the economic potential of these technologies. Investing in them is simply good business.

I believe in European integration, so I am glad to see an added value in European ventures. Space technologies have the potential to improve the quality of life of all Europeans. We therefore cannot afford to waste its potential, or the funds that have so far been invested.

About the author
Bogdan Andrzej Zdrojewski (EPP, PL) is Parliament’s rapporteur on space capabilities for European security and defence

Source

MARKHAM, Ontario, Canada – March 1, 2016: PCI Geomatics, a world leading developer of remote sensing and photogrammetric software and systems, announced today the release of its GeoImaging Accelerator (GXL) 2016 – the latest version of the company’s proven, high-performance, and scalable image processing solution.

GXL technology provides significant improvements in automation, speed and efficiency by optimizing and distributing automated workflows. GXL 2016 brings two big additions to its capabilities through new add-on packages for the ADS airborne digital scanner and for processing synthetic-aperture RADAR (SAR) imagery. These packages add new jobs to the JPS interface, while other improvements expand job management, sensor support and bundle options, keeping the GXL at the forefront of high-performance ortho-mosaic processing.

“We’ve really expanded the GXL in two significant ways with this release” said David Piekny, Product Marketing Manager at PCI Geomatics. “By adding ADS ortho on the aerial side and SAR polarimetry on the satellite side, we met two key goals for the product and for our customers. This is in addition to core improvements like job handling that make it even easier for operators to remotely manage the distributed, automated processing in the GXL.”

The ADS Sensor package in GXL 2016 uses an all-new bundle method for consistent, seamless mosaics. The GXL SAR package provides orthorectification as well as polarimetric parameter calculations and a change detection job – these jobs provide outputs used in more complex polarimetry and classification applications quickly and easily.

“By packaging the spatial aspects of SAR orthorectification along with application tools, we’ve created a strong, natural combination. An analyst could run a batch of calculations to determine the most suitable polarizations, and then apply them to a large set of new imagery. By linking this first step to the subsequent orthorectification and then change detection, the whole image stack can be processed automatically,” said Piekny. “Coupled with our Geomatica suite of analysis and visualization tools, we’ve got a unique solution with speed, efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility.”

GXL 2016 is available for purchase starting today. For a full list of new features and functions, or for more information about GXL, visit www.pcigeomatics.com/GXL.

About PCI Geomatics

PCI Geomatics is a world-leading developer of software and systems for remote sensing, geo-image processing, and photogrammetry. With more than 30 years of experience in the geospatial industry, PCI is recognized globally for its excellence in providing software for accurately and rapidly processing satellite and aerial imagery. There are more than 30,000 PCI licenses, in over 150 countries worldwide.

Find out more about PCI Geomatics at www.pcigeomatics.com.

The EU-funded project ESCAPE is part of ECMWF Scalability programme, looking at improving coding efficiency for both weather and climate modelling. ESCAPE is organising its 1st Dissemination and Training workshop between the 18th and 20th October 2016 in Elsinore, Denmark on the topic of: “Energy-efficient Scalable Algorithms for Weather- and Climate prediction: Status and Prospects”.

The workshop sessions will be organized according to the following topics (with oral presentations, including keynote speakers):

  • Introduction to the ESCAPE project
  • Weather & Climate Dwarfs – aspects and fundamental algorithmic building blocks underlying weather and climate services;
  • Diagnostic methods and tools, co-design and algorithms development for use in extreme-scale, HPC applications, minimizing time- and cost-to-solution;
  • Session for relevant EU projects involving HPC for weather, climate, ocean/sea, Earth System Modelling communities
  • Panel discussions on key issues from the workshop

1st ESCAPE Dissemination and Training Workshop.pdf

Following the previous publication concerning the main goal of the research project INnovative multi-sensor network for DEformation and Seismic Monitoring of Urban Subsidence-prone Areas – INDES MUSA, a newly implementation is performed associated with a change detection process.

The technological development in the fields of computer vision and digital photogrammetry provides new tools and automated solutions for applications in urban studies associated with urban development, 3D modelling and change detection.

In this context, numerous algorithms have been developed over the years for the automatic change detection in urban environments using high resolution digital aerial imagery as well as point clouds derived from LiDAR sensors and dense image matching techniques.

Impact

The wider scope of the automatic change detection is a research topic in over two decades. In the literature, two types of approaches called chance enhancement and from-to are proposed for the automatic change detection. The chance enhancement approach indicates only the position and the magnitude of the changes. In contrary, the from-to approach indicates not only the position and the magnitude of the changes but also its nature (e.g. building changes, vegetation changes, etc.). However, the scientific methodologies vary with the desired objects of interest (e.g. automatic building change detection) towards the challenge of the increasingly greater demands for accurate and cost effective applications.

Concept

The main goal of this research is to highlight the building and vegetation changes of the urban area of Kalochori. In this context, a spatial and multi-temporal analysis is quite capable.

Technical Details

For the epoch 1, an orthoimage (produced by high resolution RGB digital aerial imagery that derived at 11 May 2014) with a ground sample distance (GSD) of 10 cm as well as a LiDAR point cloud with a density of 4pts/m2 (derived at 2 May 2014) are used. On the other hand, for the epoch 2, an orthoimage (produced by high resolution RGB digital aerial imagery that derived at 18 November 2015) with a GSD of 10 cm as well as a point cloud produced by dense image matching techniques with a point density of 1 m are used. Sophisticated image based as well as point cloud based chance enhancement techniques were implemented to achieve accurate and reliable results.


Image based change detection results at a sub-region of the overall scene of the Kalochori urban site


The point cloud based change detection results

Contact Info

  • Contact person : Betty Charalampopoulou
  • E-mail
  • Participants in the project: GEOSYSTEMS HELLAS S.A. (coordinator) and the research institutes: EPPO-ITSAKNOAIG.

This project developed an advanced 5D Multi-Purpose LIS (Land information System), based on existing 3d packages (traded by the two participating enterprises) for integrating and managing various types of information (financial, architectural, topographical, cadastral, valuation, engineering, ownership, etc.) from governmental, regional and local databases at 3d spatial dimensions + time + scale. The system will allow representations and analysis of real estate properties and man-made features in three physical dimensions (X,Y,Z), through time (planning phase, development phase, registration phase, modification phase, and so on) and at varying scales (level of detail).

The complexity of modern urban environment requires the ability to handle a great number of various types of data “spatially”-with spatial reference and topological structure. Public demand for good urban governance (related to economy, environment, and/or social issues) and efficiency improvement has brought the need for more sophisticated Systems; as cities expand vertically a 3d topological structure of LISs (or 3d-GIS) is already used.

Impact

Urban populations are growing faster than at any moment in history. This explosion in population and density of modern cities is presenting new challenges for governments, developers, designers, citizens, and other stakeholders resulting from the massive deployment of information sources in cities around the world. The issue of adequate and affordable housing is addressed separately from general land development as there is a global understanding that market alone cannot satisfy this need and special tools and regulations need to be developed, within the free market economy, in order to ensure the sustainable development goals. In order to support the global trends in the management of land and real estate researchers are expected to provide tools that will be functional, reliable, affordable, inclusive & fit-for-purpose, capable to satisfy a world that cannot wait. 5DMupLIS is a technical tool that helps all partners involved in the management of land and real estate (governments, private sector and professionals, citizens) to implement modern policies and develop fit-for-purpose solutions for the “best use” of the urban land. Moreover, through the application for affordable housing provision, it can support self – financed, small projects for urban regeneration, creation of green public spaces within the urban neighborhoods, encourage policies to mitigate and adjust to climate change situation and most important to plan for affordable housing provision with the contribution and involvement of the private sector and the voluntary participation of the property owners.


Cesium visualization in 4D (3-D + time) using CZML and bglTF formats

Concept

The main objective of this study is to “develop an appropriate technical tool that will support land management interventions to deal with the emerging global challenges within the current international trends and the global policy framework for good land management”. This tool is expected to enable public agencies, private sector, and citizen to cooperate more efficiently together to develop the strategy, set the regulations and implement land management policies through a fit-for-purpose geospatial infrastructure, that will collect, manage and disseminate geospatial data about the ownership, use, development procedures, value of properties, and housing aspects by (i) improving access to geospatial data across agencies and removing redundancies and duplication of work, (ii) enhancing land management services and geospatial information provision and exchange between government and citizens, (iii) improving response times and reducing costs, (iv) enabling better coordination between the public and private sectors, (v) enhancing the provision and dissemination of public services by the support and the greater involvement of the private sector and the participation of citizens, and (vi) improving transparency, democracy and engagement in decision making at all levels. The above is aligned with a global need for good land management as identified and agreed by all major international organizations (e.g., International Federation of Surveyors –FIG, UN, the World Bank, etc) and is included in their studies and proposals, aiming to achieve economic


LOD3 in the future time instance (e.g., 2017)

Technical Details

To achieve this objective, the following methodology was selected:

  • a) For Identification of the global challenges and the policy framework, the potential users and their needs a technical research is made to identify and develop the best methodology for a cost-effective 3D modelling creation and updating through time. Semi-automated approaches using dense image matching (Semi-global matching technique) and Structure from Motion methods are applied for the creation of textured 3D models;
  • b) Collection of additional cadastral information about the individual units and the right holders in order first to update the administrative cadastral information in the area under study for the present time period and second to understand the duration of the existing property rights through time by introducing the 4th dimension in the cadastral database;
  • c) Additional information is added about the construction material, age, location, orientation, etc., that will allow the reliable property valuation of those units and the estimation of the value of the property of each right holder in the case study area. The final products of this procedure are the input data (the 5DMuPLIS database with geometric and attribute data) for the visualization module of the “5DMuPLIS technical tool”;
  • d) Two viewers were developed. The first viewer (KML/CZML Viewer) allows the user to interactively visualize the 5 dimensions’ data (3D+time+scale) from the 5DMuPLIS database using either Google Earth or directly in a web browser (via the Cesium 3-D globe library). The viewer currently supports four different visualization modes of the input data and is very flexible and able to provide different information and to target different applications/user needs. The second viewer (LoP5Dv) is custom made software that was developed from scratch without the use of any commercial, open source or other existing API or library.


Methodology implemented for the creation of the 3D textured models of buildings


Selective (predictive) 3D modelling architecture

Contact Info

  • Contact person: Betty Charalampopoulou
  • E-mail : mail@geosystems-hellas.gr
  • Participants in the project: GEOSYSTEMS HELLAS S.A. – GSH (coordinator), Laboratory of Photogrammetry – National Technical University of Athens (LOP/NTUA), Visual Computing Lab Information Technologies Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece (CERTH-ITI-VCL).

(11 December 2015 © ESA) The satellite age has revolutionised our understanding of Earth, giving us accurate information to help critical agreements on climate change such as at the current COP21 conference in Paris. Diminishing polar ice is one of the most visible indicators of change, but how much have we learnt over the last decades?

Spectacular feats of polar exploration actually go back to the 1800’s when early expeditions offered a rare glimpse into these icy regions. However, it is only relatively recently that we have understood the importance of ice in the climate system and have evidence that these frozen expanses are becoming a casualty of climate change.

Arctic sea ice, for example, is particularly sensitive to our warming climate and is often cited as a barometer of global change.

Ice that forms and melts in the ocean only has a very tiny effect on sea level – the melting of ice sheets and glaciers that overlie land are the main causes of sea-level rise, along with the thermal expansion of the water.

More info