GLAS/ICESat 500 m Laser Altimetry Digital Elevation Model of Antarctica  View Catalog Page Entry ID
NSIDC-0304
Summary
The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument on the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) provides global measurements of elevation, and repeats measurements along nearly-identical tracks; its primary mission is to measure changes in ice volume (mass balance) over time. This digital elevation model (DEM) of Antarctica is derived from GLAS/ICESat laser altimetry profile data and provides new surface elevation grids of the ice sheets and coastal areas, with greater latitudinal extent and fewer slope-related effects than radar altimetry.
This DEM is generated from the first seven operational periods (from February 2003 through June 2005) of the GLAS instrument. It is provided on polar stereographic grids at 500 m grid spacing. The grid covers all of Antarctica north of 86° S. Elevations are reported as centimeters above the datums, relative to both the WGS 84 ellipsoid and the EGM96 geoid, in two separate elevation data files. A data quality map of the interpolation distance is distributed in addition to the elevation data. ENVI header files are also provided.
The data are in 4-byte (long) signed integer binary files (big endian byte order) and are available via FTP.
Geographic Coverage
Spatial Coordinates:
N: -63°
S: -86°
E: 180°
W: -180°
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Data Set Citation
Dataset Creator: John P. DiMarzio
Dataset Title: GLAS/ICESat 500 m Laser Altimetry Digital Elevation Model of Antarctica
Dataset Release Date: 2007-06-22
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, Colorado USA
Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Data Presentation Form: Digital media
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0304.html
Temporal Coverage
Start Date: 2003-02-01
Stop Date: 2005-06-30
Data Resolution
Latitude Resolution: 500 m
Longitude Resolution: 500 m
Location Keywords
- Continent Antarctica
Science Keywords
- Cryosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Elevation/Ice Sheet Elevation
- Terrestrial Hydrosphere Glaciers/Ice Sheets Glacier Elevation/Ice Sheet Elevation
Ancillary Keywords
- Altimetry
- Antarctic Ice Sheet
- Antarctica
- Dem
- Digital Elevation Model
- Elevation
- Ice Sheet
- Ice Sheet Elevation
- Polar
- Polar Stereographic
- South Pole
Platform
- ICESAT Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite
Instrument
- GLAS Geoscience Laser Altimeter System
Project
- ICESAT Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite
Quality
Slope and elevation accuracy of the DEMs is best near the latitudinal limit of satellite coverage (±86°), and provides a good representation of the ice sheet and mountain areas (based on comparison with satellite images). DEM accuracy decreases as track spacing between ICESat profiles increases equatorward.
As a quality and accuracy indicator, the mean distance of all contributing GLAS surface spot data to the grid cell center was recorded in a separate identical grid for each ice sheet. These mean distance files are provided with the elevation data.
Data Set Progress
COMPLETE
Data Center
NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/daac/index.html
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0304
Data Center Personnel
Name: NSIDC DAAC 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: 433,997,915 bytes compressed
Distribution Format: binary
Personnel
John DiMarzio
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Phone: 301-614-5893
Email: john.dimarzio@gsfc.nasa.gov
Contact Address:
SGT, Inc.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Cryospheric Sciences Branch Code 614.1
City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771
Country: USA
ANITA BRENNER
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Email: anita.brenner@gsfc.nasa.gov
Contact Address:
Code 614.5
City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771
Country: USA
Helen Fricker
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Dr.
City: La Jolla
Province or State: California
Postal Code: 92093
Country: USA
Robert Schutz
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
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
Christopher A. Shuman
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Phone: 301-614-5706
Email: Christopher.A.Shuman@nasa.gov
Contact Address:
Cryospheric Sciences Branch
Code 614.1
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771
Country: USA
H. Jay ZWALLY
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Phone: 301-614-5643
Fax: 301-614-5644
Email: Jay.Zwally@nasa.gov
Contact Address:
Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 971
City: Greenbelt
Province or State: MD
Postal Code: 20771
Country: USA
NSIDC User Services
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone: (303) 492-6199
Fax: (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
Related URL
GET DATA
FTP site for obtaining these data.
GET SERVICE > ACCESS MAP VIEWER
View these and other data in NSIDC's Antarctic Cryosphere Access Portal (A-CAP) online map viewer.
GET SERVICE > GET WEB COVERAGE SERVICE (WCS)
Access these data in GeoTIFF format using the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Coverage Service (WCS).
GET SERVICE > GET WEB FEATURE SERVICE (WFS)
Access contours of these data in Geography Markup Language (GML) using the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Feature Service (WFS).
GET SERVICE > GET WEB MAP SERVICE (WMS)
Access these data as map images using the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS).
VIEW PROJECT HOME PAGE
Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation (ICESat) project page at NSIDC
VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
Polar Ice Sheet DEMs and Topographic Data at NSIDC
Reference
Abshire, J., and 8 others. 2005. Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on the ICESat mission: on-orbit measurement performance. Geophysical Research Letters v. 32, L21S02, doi:10.1029/2005GL1024028.
Brenner, A., and 11 others. 2003. Derivation of range and range distributions from laser pulse waveform analysis for surface elevations, roughness, slope, and vegetations heights, Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) v.4.1, available at http://www.csr.utexas.edu/glas/atbd.html.
DiMarzio, J. P., A. C. Brenner, and H. J. Zwally. 2004. Comparison of Envisat and ERS radar altimetry for ice –sheet elevation change studies. ESA Envisat Sympsium, Salzburg, Austria, September 9, 2004.
Krabill, W., W. Abdalati, and 7 others. 2002. Aircraft laser altimetry measurement of elevation changes of the Greenland Ice Sheet: technique and accuracy assessment. J. Geodynamics 34, 357-376.
Shuman, C., J. Zwally, B. Schutz, A. Brenner, J. DiMarzio, V. Schuedo, and H. Fricker. 2006. ICESat Antarctic elevation data: preliminary precision and accuracy assessment. Geophysical Research Letters 33, L07501, doi:10.1029/2005GL025227.
Zwally, H. J., A. C. Brenner, J. A. Major, T. V. Martin, and R. A. Bindschadler. 1990. Satellite radar altimetry over ice, Vol. 1. Processing and corrections of Seasat data over Greenland. NASA Reference Publication 1233.
Metadata Name and Version
Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7
Creation and Review Dates
DIF Creation Date: 2007-06-18
Last DIF Revision Date: 2009-05-20
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