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GLAS/ICESat L1A Global Laser Pointing Data (HDF5), Version 33
Data set id:
GLAH04
DOI: 10.5067/ICESAT/GLAS/DATA104
This is the most recent version of these data.
Version Summary
For information about Version 33, visit the ICESat/GLAS Version History page

Overview

Level-1A global laser pointing data (GLAH04) contain two orbits of attitude data from the spacecraft star tracker, instrument star tracker, gyro, and laser reference system, and other spacecraft attitude data required to calculate precise laser pointing.
Parameter(s):
ATTITUDE CHARACTERISTICS
VIEWING GEOMETRY
Platform(s):
ICESat
Sensor(s):
ALTIMETERS
CD
GLAS
GPS
GPS Receiver
LA
PC
Data Format(s):
HDF
Temporal Coverage:
  • 20 February 2003 to 11 October 2009
Temporal Resolution:
Not Specified
Spatial Resolution:
  • 60 m to 70 m
  • 60 m to 70 m
Spatial Reference System(s):
  • ITRF2008
    EPSG:5332
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

A free NASA Earthdata Login account is required to access these data. Learn More

Documentation

Product Specification Documents

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.

How to Articles

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:
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.
The HDF Group has example code for access and visualization of MODIS, GLAS HDF5, AMSR-E, and NISE data in MATLAB, IDL, Python, and NCL.
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.
HDFView https://support.hdfgroup.org/products/java/hdfview/ When you first open HDFView, the HDFView window appears with an empty tree and data panel.