Name: ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, Version 5
Creator: National Snow and Ice Data Center
Keywords: TERRAIN ELEVATION

ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, Version 5

Data set id:

ATL03

DOI: 10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.005

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.

Neumann, T. A., Brenner, A., Hancock, D., Robbins, J., Saba, J., Harbeck, K., Gibbons, A., Lee, J., Luthcke, S. B., Rebold, T. et al. (2021). ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data. (ATL03, Version 5). [Data Set]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.005. [describe subset used if applicable]. Date Accessed 11-13-2026.

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

Changes for this version include:

Updated photon heights to include time-dependent range bias. The mean offset between ATL03 version 4 and version 5 photon heights is on the order of 1.2 cm. See more details in the user guide and/or ATBD for this data product.

Added XML metadata to indicate the percentage of each surface type within a granule.

Updated podppd_flag to include identification of ATLAS calibration periods.

Updated the default uncertainty values to represent the current best estimates.

Improved the TEP flagging.

Implemented some bug fixes including updates in the photon selection algorithm, calculation of the neutral atmosphere delay derivative and quality_ph flagging improvements.

Overview

This data set (ATL03) contains height above the WGS 84 ellipsoid (ITRF2014 reference frame), latitude, longitude, and time for all photons downlinked by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) observatory. The ATL03 product was designed to be a single source for all photon data and ancillary information needed by higher-level ATLAS/ICESat-2 products. As such, it also includes spacecraft and instrument parameters and ancillary data not explicitly required for ATL03.

Parameter(s):

TERRAIN ELEVATION

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:

70 cm

70 cm

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.

View Metadata Record

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