NSIDC DAAC is currently upgrading our data ingest process for NASA Earthdata Cloud. During this transition, users may notice temporary interruptions in data availability or notice small data gaps. All gaps will be resolved as quickly as possible. During this upgrade jpeg browse imagery will also not be available for preview in Earthdata search. Please reach out to NSIDC User Services with any questions or concerns.
ICESat-2 data sets ATL03 V5, ATL06 V5, ATL07 V5, ATL08 V5, ATL10 V5, ATL12 V5, and ATL13 V5 contain a geolocation error that results in a mean across-track position error of 1.5 m (up to 8 m) beginning 24 October 2021. On average, the resulting height errors are small (< 1 cm), and the mean along-track position error is 0.5 m (up to 4 m).
The NSIDC DAAC is retiring access to its legacy, on-premises data archive and transitioning to the NASA Earthdata Cloud as the primary data archive. View planned retirement dates here.
Data Citation and Acknowledgment As a condition of using these data, you must cite the use of this data set. Such a practice gives credit to data set producers and advances principles of transparency and reproducibility.
Smith, B., Adusumilli, S., Csathó, B. M., Felikson, D., Fricker, H. A., Gardner, A. S., Holschuh, N., Lee, J., Nilsson, J., Paolo, F., Siegfried, M. R., Sutterley, T. & the ICESat-2 Science Team. (2021). ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land Ice Height. (ATL06, Version 5). [Data Set]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL06.005. [describe subset used if applicable]. Date Accessed 09-03-2025.
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Other standard citation formats may be found on the DOI Citation Formatter website (paste 10.5067/ATLAS/ATL06.005 into the top form field).
Describing subset: When applicable, include the information a reader would need to extract the same subset at the end of your citation. If multiple or complex steps were incolved, it may be more appropriate to include this information in the paper itself.
See our Citation Policies for more details about how to structure your data citation.
For this version, the data set the h_robust_sprd parameter was removed from the ATL06_quality_summary flag.
In this section
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Overview
This data set (ATL06) provides geolocated, land-ice surface heights (above the WGS 84 ellipsoid, ITRF2014 reference frame), plus ancillary parameters that can be used to interpret and assess the quality of the height estimates. The data were acquired by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) observatory.
Parameter(s):
GLACIER ELEVATION/ICE SHEET ELEVATION
Platform(s):
ICESat-2
Sensor(s):
ATLAS
Data Format(s):
HDF5
Temporal Coverage:
14 October 2018 to 13 October 2022
Temporal Resolution:
91 day
Spatial Resolution:
Not Specified
Spatial Reference System(s):
WGS 84
EPSG:4326
Spatial Coverage:
N:
90
S:
-90
E:
180
W:
-180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.
The NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) is migrating its primary data access from its legacy, on-premises archive to the NASA Earthdata Cloud.
Many NSIDC DAAC data sets can be accessed using NSIDC DAAC's Data Access Tool. This tool provides the ability to search and filter data with spatial and temporal constraints using a map-based interface.Users have the option to:
This quickstart guide will walk you through the essential steps to start using the Harmony API to request subsetted files with specific spatial and temporal filters applied for select data sets.
To convert HDF5 files into binary format you will need to use the h5dump utility, which is part of the HDF5 distribution available from the HDF Group. How you install HDF5 depends on your operating system.
This guide will provide an overview of the altimetry measurements and data sets across the missions, as well as a guide for accessing the data through NASA Earthdata Search and programmatically using an Application Programming Interface (API).
The NASA Earthdata Cloud is the NASA cloud-based archive of Earth observations. It is hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Learn how to find and access NSIDC DAAC data directly in the cloud.
This article highlights the NSIDC DAAC data sets available with customization options and outlines a workflow for searching, ordering, and customizing data in NASA Earthdata Search. This approach is ideal for users who want to download data to their local machine.