Cryosat, however, will see finer detail, and its "vision" will cover virtually all of the Arctic.
Cryosat's altimetry observations agree well with independent measures of sea-ice thickness derived from aircraft surveys and under-ice moorings.
Cryosat's radar instrument will make detailed maps of the ice that covers both the sea and land at the poles.
Cryosat will add significantly to the information scientists already possess, making observations that are beyond the current generation of spacecraft.
Cryosat-2 will measure very precisely the rates of change of sea and land ice in the Arctic and the Antarctic.
He adds that the data gathered during the expedition will also be used to calibrate the instruments on Esa's Cryosat-2 satellite, scheduled to be launched in 2009.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Arctic trek to map climate impacts
Although built mainly in Germany and France, CryoSat-2 is led scientifically from the UK by its proposer and principal investigator, Professor Duncan Wingham from University College London.
Cryosat carries the "2" designation because it is actually a rebuild of a mission that was destroyed in 2005 when its then launcher (also a converted missile) failed just minutes into its flight.
Radar altimeters flown on missions previous to Cryosat have not had the resolution to do this as precisely as researchers would like, and have not flown far enough to the north to get a full view of the Arctic basin.
"Seymour's work provided evidence with which to propose and eventually launch the Cryosat mission, which is now - as his last paper describes - providing the first observations of the annual cycle of sea-ice growth and decay throughout the Arctic Ocean, " Dr Giles said.
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