• 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).

  • For a list of known issues with this product, see the Known Issues document under the Documentation section of the page.

ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Sea Ice Height, Version 5
Data set id:
ATL07
DOI: 10.5067/ATLAS/ATL07.005
There is a more recent version of these data.
Version Summary
Changes for this version include:

  • The ATL07 QA check (atl07_qa_mod) for insufficient output failure has been updated to only check for valid sea ice segments. Previously, total number of sea ice segments written (valid and invalid) were counted.

  • The description of height_segment_confidence was updated so that it agrees with the coded procedure.

  • A max_incidence_angle filter was implemented and added as a controllable override. If the beam incidence angle exceeds max_incidence_angle, the surface type will be set to -1.

  • A contrast filter has been implemented, but turned off by default. Two new controllable parameters have been added.

  • The podppd flag has been added to the ATL07 product and is used to filter heights and segment surface type.

  • A new parameter height_segment_n_pulse_seg_used has been added to the ATL07 product. This parameter excludes the number of specular returns filtered out of processing, unlike height_segment_n_pulse_seg.

  • The description of photon_rate has been updated so that it is clear how the parameter is computed.

  • Modified the integration test scripts to generate browse products and check for the presence of default1 and default2 plots.

  • Updated the ANC31 sea ice concentration interface to read either v1 or v2 of the sea ice concentration files.

  • New parameters of mean ocean sea level pressure and dynamic inverted barometer effect are calculated in ATL07. These are not currently applied to the heights but could be in future releases. The new parameters are: /ancillary_data/sea_ice /mean_ocean_slp: Mean ocean sea level pressure computed in ATL07 and /gtx/sea_ice_segments/geophysical/height_segment_dynib: Dynamic inverted barometer.

Overview

The data set (ATL07) contains along-track heights for sea ice and open water leads (at varying length scales) relative to the WGS84 ellipsoid (ITRF2014 reference frame) after adjustment for geoidal and tidal variations, and inverted barometer effects. Height statistics and apparent reflectance are also provided. 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):
SEA ICE ELEVATION
Platform(s):
ICESat-2
Sensor(s):
ATLAS
Data Format(s):
HDF5
Temporal Coverage:
14 October 2018 to 12 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.

Data Access & Tools

This data set has been retired. There is a more recent version of these data.

Help Articles

General Questions & FAQs

This article covers frequently asked questions about the NASA NSIDC DAAC's Earthdata cloud migration project and what it means to data users.
This short article describes the customization services available for ICESat-2 data using Earthdata Search.

How to Articles

Many NSIDC DAAC data sets can be accessed using the 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
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.
Learn the basic steps for using OpenAltimetry to browse and download ICESat-2 data products.
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.
All data from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) can be accessed directly from our HTTPS file system, using wget or curl. Basic command line instructions are provided in the article below. 
NASA Earthdata Search is a map-based interface where a user can search for Earth science data, filter results based on spatial and temporal constraints, and order data with customizations including re-formatting, re-projecting, and spatial and parameter subsetting.
This webinar introduces the ICESat-2 mission and shows you how to explore, access and customize ICESat-2 data with the OpenAltimetry application, using NSIDC DAAC tools, and shows you how to subset, reformat and analyze the data using Python.