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GLAS/ICESat L1B Global Elevation Data

Entry ID

GLA06

Summary

The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument on the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) provides global measurements of polar ice sheet elevation to discern changes in ice volume (mass balance) over time. Secondary objectives of GLAS are to measure sea ice roughness and thickness, cloud and atmospheric properties, land topography, vegetation canopy heights, ocean surface topography, and surface reflectivity.

GLAS has a 1064 nm laser channel for surface altimetry and dense cloud heights, and a 532 nm lidar channel for the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols.

Level-1B elevation data (GLA06) include surface elevation, surface roughness assuming no slope, surface slope assuming no roughness, and geodetic and atmospheric corrections for range measurements. GLA06 is used in conjunction with GLA05 to create the Level-2 altimetry products (GLA12-15)

Each data granule has an associated browse product that users can quickly view to determine the general quality of the data in the granule. Browse products consist of image plots of key parameters and statistics. Data are in scaled integer binary format, big-endian (Unix) byte order, and are available via FTP.

Geographic Coverage

Spatial Coordinates:
N: 86° S: -86° E: 180° W: -180°

Data Set Citation

Dataset Creator: Zwally, H., R. Schutz, C. Bentley, J. Bufton, T. Herring, J. Minster, J. Spinhirne, and R. Thomas.
Dataset Title: GLAS/ICESat L1B Global Elevation Data
Dataset Release Date: 2011-08-11
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, Colorado USA
Dataset Publisher: NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center
Version: 33
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/gla06.html

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 2003-02-20
Stop Date: 2009-10-11

Location Keywords

GEOGRAPHIC REGION GLOBAL

Science Keywords

Cryosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Elevation/Ice Sheet Elevation
Cryosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Topography/Ice Sheet Topography
Cryosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Ice Sheets
Cryosphere Sea Ice Ice Roughness
Cryosphere Sea Ice Reflectance Laser Reflectance
Land Surface Surface Radiative Properties Reflectance Laser Reflectance
Land Surface Topography Surface Roughness
Land Surface Topography Terrain Elevation
Oceans Sea Ice Ice Roughness
Oceans Sea Ice Reflectance Laser Reflectance
Oceans Sea Surface Topography Sea Surface Height
Oceans Sea Surface Topography Sea Surface Slope
Terrestrial Hydrosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Elevation/Ice Sheet Elevation
Terrestrial Hydrosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Topography/Ice Sheet Topography
Terrestrial Hydrosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Ice Sheets

Ancillary Keywords

Altimetry
Atmospheric Delay Correction
Backscatter
DAAC
Dem
EOSDIS
GLA06
GLAS
Global Positioning System
GPS
ICESat
ISIPS
Laser Footprint
Laser Pulse
Lidar
NASA
Noise Level
NSIDC
Off-nadir Pointing Direction
Orbit Number
Precision Attitude Determination
Precision Orbit Determination
Range
Received Energy
Received Pulse Gain
Signal Saturation
Transmitted Energy
Transmitted Gain
Waveform
Waveform Kurtosis
Waveform Skewness

ISO Topic Category (View Definitions)

Elevation

Platform

ICESAT Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite
SATELLITES

Instrument

ALTIMETERS
GLAS Geoscience Laser Altimeter System

Project

ICESAT Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite

Quality

Browse products in PNG graphic format contain quality information; these are available along with corresponding data granules in the Data Pool or EOS Data Gateway. The i_FrameQF quality flag is set to '1' if there is a problem in calculating individual parameters, or the flag is set to '0' if there are no problems.

Data Set Progress

complete

Originating Center

NASA/GSFC/EOS/EO

Data Center

NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/daac/index.html

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC User Services
Phone: 1 303 492-6199
Fax: 1 303 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:

National Snow and Ice Data Center

CIRES, 449 UCB

University of Colorado

City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC User Services
Phone: 1 303 492-6199
Fax: 1 303 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:

National Snow and Ice Data Center

CIRES, 449 UCB

University of Colorado

City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Distribution

Distribution Media: FTP
Distribution Size: 7 MB
Distribution Format: Binary

Personnel

NSIDC User Services
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone: 1 303 492-6199 x
Fax: 1 303 492-2468 x
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:

National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado

City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

David Hancock
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Email: David.W.Hancock@nasa.gov
Contact Address:

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
ISIPS Manager
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Wallops Flight Facility
Wallops Island, VA
USA

H. Jay Zwally
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Phone: 1 301 614-5643
Fax: 1 301 614-5644
Email: Jay.Zwally@nasa.gov
Contact Address:

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes
Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 971

City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771
Country: USA

H. Jay Zwally
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Phone: 1 301 614-5643
Fax: 1 301 614-5644
Email: Jay.Zwally@nasa.gov
Contact Address:

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes
Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 971

City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771
Country: USA

Robert Schutz
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:

University of Texas at Austin
Center for Space Research
GLAS Science Team Lead
University of Texas at Austin
Center for Space Research

City: Austin
Province or State: TX
Postal Code: 78712-1085
Country: USA

Charles Bentley
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:

University of Wisconsin
Dept. of Geology and Geophysics
Dept. of Geology and Geophysics
University of Wisconsin

City: Madison
Province or State: WI
Postal Code: 53706

Jack Bufton
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771

Thomas Herring
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

City: Cambridge
Province or State: MA
Postal Code: 02139

Jean-Bernard Minster
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:

Scripps Institute of Oceanography
University of California

City: La Jolla
Province or State: CA
Postal Code: 92093

James Spinhirne
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771

Robert Thomas
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:

EG&G
NASA Wallops Flight Facility

City: Wallops Island
Province or State: VA
Postal Code: 23337

Related URL

VIEW PROJECT HOME PAGE
ICESat/GLAS Data at NSIDC

VIEW PROJECT HOME PAGE
ICESat/GLAS web site at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

VIEW PROJECT HOME PAGE
ICESat/GLAS web site at NASA Wallops Flight Facility

VIEW PROJECT HOME PAGE
ICESat/GLAS web site at University of Texas

VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
Polar Ice Sheet DEMs and Elevation Data

Reference

Bae, S. and B.E. Schutz. 2002. Precision attitude determination (PAD). GLAS algorithm theoretical basis document. Version 2.2. Austin, TX: Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin.

Brenner, A.C., C.R. Bentley, B.M. Csatho, D.J. Harding, M.A. Hofton, J. Minster, L. Roberts, J.L. Saba, R. Schutz, R.H. Thomas, D. Yi, and H.J. Zwally. 2000. Derivation of range and range distributions from laser pulse waveform analysis for surface elevations, roughness, slope, and vegetation heights. Algorithm theoretical basis document. Version 3.0. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center.

Center for Space Research. 'ICESat/GLAS.' January 2002. http://www.csr.utexas.edu/glas/.

Davis C.H. and H.J. Zwally. 1993. Geographic and seasonal variations in the surface properties of the ice sheets by satellite radar altimetry. Journal of Glaciology 39:687-697.

Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). 1996. EOS Ground System (EGS) Systems and Operations Concept. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center.

Farrell, W.E. 1972. Deformation of the Earth by surface loads. Review of Geophysics and Space Physics 10: 761-797.

GLAS Science Team. 2000. Mission Operations Requirement Document (MORD) for the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) Mission. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center.

GLAS Science Team. 1997. GLAS Science Requirements. Version 2.01. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center.

Heroux, D. 2000. Progress report on GLAS interface effort with ECS NOSE. Rev. 29 December 2000. Landover, MD: Emergent-IT/Raytheon. Herring, T.A. and K. Quinn. 1999. Atmospheric delay correction to GLAS laser altimeter ranges. GLAS algorithm theoretical basis document. Version 1.0. Lanham, MD: Science Systems and Applications, Inc.

Jester, P., and D. Hancock. 2002. The Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for Level 1A Processing, Version 1.2. Wallops Island, VA: Raytheon ITSS.

Jester, P., and J. Lee. 2002. GLAS standard data products specification - level 1. Version 6.0. Wallops Island, VA: Raytheon ITSS.

Lee, J. 2002. GSAS user's guide: Version 4.0. Wallops Island, VA: Raytheon ITSS.

McGarry, J.F., J. Abshire, X. Sun, J. Saba, A. Brenner, and D. Yi. 2002. GLAS flight science data selection algorithms for the altimeter (1064 nm), Version 4.15. Unpublished report.

Rim, H., and B. Schutz. 2002. Precision orbit determination. GLAS algorithm theoretical basis document. Version 2.2. Austin, TX: Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin.

Schutz, B. 2000. GLAS altimeter post-launch calibration/validation plan. Version 0.99. Austin, TX: Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin.

Schutz, B. 2002. Laser footprint location (geolocation) and surface profiles. GLAS algorithm theoretical basis document. Version 3.0. Austin, TX: Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin.

Wahr, J., D. Wingham, and C. Bentley. 2000. A method of combining ICESat and GRACE satellite data to constrain Antarctic mass balance. Journal of Geophysical Research 105(B7):16,279-16,294.

Yi, D., J. Minster, and C. Bentley. 1999. Ocean tidal loading corrections. GLAS algorithm theoretical basis document. Version 1.0. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center.

Zwally, H.J., B. Schutz, W. Abdalati, J. Abshire, C. Bentley, A. Brenner, J. Bufton, J. Dezio, D. Hancock, D. Harding, T. Herring, B. Minster, K. Quinn, S. Palm, J. Spinhirne, and R. Thomas. 2002. ICESAT's laser measurements of polar ice, atmosphere, ocean, and land. Journal of Geodynamics 34: 405-445.

Zwally, H.J., B. Schutz, D. Hancock, and A. Brenner. 2000. ICESat/GLAS Standard Data Products in HDF and SCF Formats. Version 1.2. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center.

Zwally, H.J., R.A. Bindschadler, A.C. Brenner, T.V. Martin, and R.H. Thomas. 1983. Surface elevation contours of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Journal of Geophysical Research 88(C3):1589-1596.

Metadata Name and Version

Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7

Creation and Review Dates

DIF Creation Date: 2011-08-11
Last DIF Revision Date: 2013-03-06

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