Name: ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Along Track Inland Surface Water Data, Version 5
Creator: National Snow and Ice Data Center
Keywords: SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTS

ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Along Track Inland Surface Water Data, Version 5

Data set id:

ATL13

DOI: 10.5067/ATLAS/ATL13.005

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.

Jasinski, M. F., Stoll, J. D., Hancock, D., Robbins, J., Nattala, J., Morison, J., Jones, B. M., Ondrusek, M. E., Pavelsky, T. M., Parrish, C. & the ICESat-2 Science Team. (2021). ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Along Track Inland Surface Water Data. (ATL13, Version 5). [Data Set]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL13.005. [describe subset used if applicable]. Date Accessed 11-15-2026.

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There is a more recent version of these data.
Version Summary

Changes for this version include:

Modified the creation of short segment length to provide additional accuracy for smaller water bodies.

Included the analysis of the partial short segments at the very end of a transect to provide a more accurate river edge detection.

Updated subsurface refraction correction to also include lat/lon position of bottom location.

Updated the surface analysis to include assumed fresh and salt water indices based on water body type to provide a more accurate estimation of the attenuation coefficient.

Added POD/PPD flags that indicate quality of input geolocation to improve the understanding of product quality.

Replaced the Crossing Number (CN) algorithm with the Winding Number (WN) algorithm to allow the analysis over lakes previously skipped. This improved the capture of ICESat-2 observations over small and large water bodies.

Updated the external links for the ATL13 height product validation.

Added the count of output signal photons in full and partial non-anomalous and anomalous short segments to improve the understanding of product accuracy.

Fixed a couple of bugs, see the user guide for more details.

Overview

This data set (ATL13) contains along-track surface water products for inland water bodies. Inland water bodies include lakes, reservoirs, rivers, bays, estuaries and a 7km near-shore buffer. Principal data products include the along-track water surface height and standard deviation, subsurface signal (532 nm) attenuation, significant wave height, wind speed, and coarse depth to bottom topography (where data permit).

Parameter(s):

SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTS

Platform(s):

ICESat-2

Sensor(s):

ATLAS

Data Format(s):

HDF5

Temporal Coverage:

13 October 2018 to 13 October 2022

Temporal Resolution:

91 day

Spatial Resolution:

Not Specified

Spatial Reference System(s):

WGS 84
EPSG:4326

Spatial Coverage:

Northern latitude
90
Southern latitude
-90
Eastern longitude
180
Western longitude
-180

Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.

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Data Access & Tools

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

Documentation

Overview

Data Access & Tools

Documentation

User Guide

ATBDs

General Resources

Product Specification Documents