Launched in October 2005, CryoSat was a next-generation radar altimetry mission, aiming to determine variations in the thickness of the Earth's continental ice sheets and marine ice cover. Primary objective is to test the prediction of thinning arctic ice due to global warming. CryoSat was supposed to be the first Earth Explorer Opportunity mission in ESA's Living Planet program, but was lost in a launch failure on 8 October 2005, prompting the development of a successor mission, CryoSat-2.

SARAL (Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa) is an altimetric minisatellite operated by ISRO and CNES. Launched in 2013, data gathered by SARAL has applications in oceanography and atmospheric studies.

Pertaining to the measured height of large thick, glaciers, with an area of at least 50,000 sq. km, covering a continuous stretch of land and growing in all directions.

The ERS-1 (European Remote Sensing Satellite -1) was the first environmental monitoring satellite developed by ESA. The mission detected land and ocean surface change and provided observation data on oceans, polar ice, vegetation, geology, meteorology and ecology.

Sentinel-1 is a constellation of two imaging radar satellites operated by ESA. Sentinel-1B experienced an anomaly which rendered it unable to deliver radar data in December 2021, and the launch of Sentinel-1C is planned for 2023.

ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite) is a NASA/GSFC mission within the ESE (Earth Science Enterprise) program. The prime objective is to monitor the mass balance of the polar ice sheets and their contributions to global sea level change. Secondary goals are to measure cloud heights and the vertical structure of clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere, further to measure roughness, reflectivity, vegetation heights, snow-cover, and sea-ice surface characteristics, and to map topography of land surfaces. Note: ICESat is the renamed former "Laser Altimetry-1" mission.

There are no Arctic-wide or Antarctic-wide measurements of the volume of sea ice, but the volume of the Arctic sea ice is calculated using the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) developed at the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory/Polar Science Center. PIOMAS blends satellite-observed sea ice concentrations into model calculations to estimate sea ice thickness and volume. Comparison with submarine, mooring, and satellite observations help increase the confidence of the model results

Pertaining to the extent, depth, and longevity of snow pack.

The measurement and charting of the spatial variation of the ocean depths.

EnviSat was a satellite mission monitoring Earth's environment. EnviSat application areas included meteorology, climatology, environment, atmospheric chemistry, vegetation, hydrology, land use, and ocean and ice processes. EnviSat was a research mission that carried ten instruments and provided a wealth of data related to Earth's health and climate change. EnviSat carried the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer( MERIS), Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), Radar Altimeter-2 (RA-2), Laser Retro-Reflector (LRR), Microwave Radiometer (MWR), Advanced SAR (ASAR), Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS), Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY), Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer, provided by the UK and Australia (AATSR), and Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS).