• On Wednesday, September 24 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (US Mountain Time), this data set may not be available in the legacy data archive due to a planned system maintenance. Earthdata Cloud access will remain available for data sets that have migrated. Users of the SMAP near real-time products should use the NASA LANCE HTTPS File System for data access.

  • 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.

GLAS/ICESat L1B Global Elevation Data, Version 33
Data set id:
GLA06
DOI: 10.5067/ZVM5XEKY242A
There is a more recent version of these data.
Version Summary
For information about Version 33, visit the ICESat/GLAS Version History page: https://nsidc.org/data/icesat/version-history
In this section
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Overview

NOTE ON GLAS BINARY DATA: Access to all ICESat/GLAS binary data products at NSIDC DAAC was removed 01 August 2017. The Binary Data Subsetter also has been decommissioned. ICESat/GLAS data remain available in HDF5 format. The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument on the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) provides global measurements of polar ice sheet elevation to discern changes in ice volume (mass balance) over time. Secondary objectives of GLAS are to measure sea ice roughness and thickness, cloud and atmospheric properties, land topography, vegetation canopy heights, ocean surface topography, and surface reflectivity. GLAS has a 1064 nm laser channel for surface altimetry and dense cloud heights, and a 532 nm lidar channel for the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols. Level-1B elevation data (GLA06) include surface elevation, surface roughness assuming no slope, surface slope assuming no roughness, and geodetic and atmospheric corrections for range measurements. GLA06 is used in conjunction with GLA05 to create the Level-2 altimetry products (GLA12-15) Each data granule has an associated browse product that users can quickly view to determine the general quality of the data in the granule. Browse products consist of image plots of key parameters and statistics. Data are in scaled integer binary format, big-endian (Unix) byte order.
Parameter(s):
GLACIER ELEVATION/ICE SHEET ELEVATION
GLACIER TOPOGRAPHY/ICE SHEET TOPOGRAPHY
ICE ROUGHNESS
ICE SHEETS
REFLECTANCE
SEA SURFACE HEIGHT
SEA SURFACE SLOPE
SURFACE ROUGHNESS
TERRAIN ELEVATION
Platform(s):
ICESAT
Sensor(s):
ALTIMETERS
GLAS
Data Format(s):
Binary
Temporal Coverage:
  • 20 February 2003 to 11 October 2009
Temporal Resolution:
Not Specified
Spatial Resolution:
  • Not Specified
Spatial Reference System(s):
Not Specified
Spatial Coverage:
  • N:
    86
    S:
    -86
    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.

Documentation

Help Articles

General Questions & FAQs

When will the legacy, on-premises archive be retired?
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.
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How to Articles

Filter and order from a data set web page using the Data Access Tool
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:
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