• 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 3
Data set id:
ATL07
DOI: 10.5067/ATLAS/ATL07.003
There is a more recent version of these data.
Version Summary
Changes for this version include:

  • Added additional sea ice browse images to allow for better qualitative assessment of the product.

  • Fixed a bug related to temporal/geographic bounds that placed ATL07 granules in the wrong hemisphere on Earthdata Search.

  • Sea ice processing now limited to medium and high confidence photons when determining if a photon return is specular. This addresses overlap in the land ice and sea ice masks and issues with over-counting photons prior to calculating specular returns.

  • The Version 3 algorithm was updated to account for the additional photons in the larger land ice telemetry window in regions where the land and sea ice masks overlap. This improves coverage around coastal Antarctica and the Arctic coast—in particular around Arctic shelves and Canadian Arctic Archipelago passages.

  • Removed TEP photons from consideration for sea ice processing.

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 11 November 2020
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
Harmony API Quickstart Guide: Customizing NASA NSIDC DAAC data in Earthdata Cloud
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) is directly accessible through our HTTPS file system using Wget or curl. This article provides basic command line instructions for accessing data using this method.
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.
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.