GLAS/ICESat L1A Global Laser Pointing Data

Data Contributors

ZWALLY, H. JAY
SCHUTZ, ROBERT
ABSHIRE, JAMES

Parameters

ATTITUDE CHARACTERISTICS
VIEWING GEOMETRY

Instruments

ALTIMETERS
GLAS : GEOSCIENCE LASER ALTIMETER SYSTEM
LIDAR : LIGHT DETECTION AND RANGING

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-1A global laser pointing data (GLA04) 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. Data are in scaled integer binary format, big-endian (Unix) byte order, and are available via FTP, CD-ROM, DVD, DLT, or 8-mm tape.

Data Citation

The following example shows how to cite the use of this data set in a publication. List the principal investigators, year of data set release, data set title and version, dates of data you used, publishers (NSIDC), and digital media.

Zwally, H.J., R. Schutz, C. Bentley, J. Bufton, T. Herring, J. Minster, J. Spinhirne, and R. Thomas. 2003, updated current year. GLAS/ICESat L1A Global Laser Pointing Data V018, 15 October to 18 November 2003. Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital media.