OpenAltimetry

Check this page to read about currently known issues with OpenAltimetry (OA). If you discover an issue that is not listed on this page, please let us know at nsidc@nsidc.org. The OA team is working towards resolving these issues in future updates to the tool.

Enhancements with latest release

• Improved data location representation at low resolution zoom levels.
• Faster user interface performance while panning, zooming and switching dates at low and medium zoom.
• Dynamic caching of high resolution points, resulting in faster rendering times after first view.

General issues

• Bookmarks for the old https site do not work: The project team created a redirect from the previous version of OA at http://openaltimetry.org. Note that if you use an ‘s' at the end of the http, it will not redirect you to the new website. We recommend you update your bookmarks to the new website url: https://openaltimetry.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/
• Annotations: you can create a new annotation, but other annotations from the previous version of OpenAltimetry have not been added to this version of OpenAltimetry yet. Historical annotations will be added in a future release.

ICESat-2 issues

• Data viewing anomalies for ATL13: OpenAltimetry does not easily display data from files that cross midnight and contain data from two dates. If you do not see data for an area that you suspect should display data (based upon views of other data products, such as ATL08), select the previous day in the popup calendar.
• Anti-meridian crossing polygons display incorrectly. When zoomed out in the map interface, data locations are indicated by polygons surrounding densely spaced data points. Polygons that cross the anti-meridian display incorrectly. For accurate data location, zoom in until the polygons resolve into points. This issue will be fixed in an upcoming release.
• Map view anomalies for ATL10: When viewing ATL10 data in the map view of OpenAltimetry, indicator dots may appear in some areas where there are fill values rather than measurements in the HDF5 file. OpenAltimetry is displaying indicator dots when none should display. These fill values may also result in elevation plots not loading when a user expects there to be data (the elevation plots will not display fill values). This will be fixed in a future release.
• 3D viewer: When viewing elevation plots or photon plots, the option to launch the 3D view has been removed until that functionality can be updated.

ICESat issues

• Viewing waveforms: When selecting 'View Track Data' a new browser window will open with color-coded data acquisition dots along the track you selected. You will also see dots for other tracks nearby. You will be able to see track elevation plots for any area selected, however the track name in the plot dialog window will be of the starting track. Also, you will only be able to view waveforms for data along the starting selected track. If you're having trouble viewing waveforms, make sure the dots in the area you selected are all on the initially selected track. To get waveforms for other areas, you will need to go back to the main map and select a different starting track. This is a known issue and will be fixed in a future release.

Version history

• Version 3.16.10 was released on June 20, 2025: included map interface performance improvements.
• Version 3.2 was released on December 6, 2023: Included a fix so users can download HDF5 files in multiple web browsers.
• Version 3.0 released on November 9, 2023: Introduced ICESat surface elevation data visualization capabilities.
• Version 2.0 released on October 5, 2023: Introduced ICESat-2 version 6 data that are stored in and accessed from NASA Earthdata Cloud.