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Data Summaries

List of Data Products
Current Release Schedule
Laser Operational Periods
Related Data Sets

List of Data Products    [top]

Note: L1A, L1B, and L2 in the data set titles refer to data processing levels, not laser identifiers.

See Preliminary ICESat/GLAS Data for information about the preliminary versions of ICESat/GLAS products first released on 31 October 2003.

Current Release Schedule     [top]

The table below summarizes the present release of ICESat/GLAS data (release 28) ordered by release date, with the most recently received campaign listed first. We recommend you work with the latest release of data (the highest release number), which include improvements to product algorithms. For information on past releases of ICESat/GLAS data, see the past releases schedule.

* The WIST Version column refers to the number appended to the end of a product title, when ordering products through the Warehouse Inventory Search Tool (WIST). Example: "GLAS/ICESAT L1A GLOBAL ATMOSPHERE DATA V018."

Laser Operational Periods    [top]

Attributes

The ICESat/GLAS instrument has three lasers, each of which 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. The three lasers have been operated one at a time, sequentially throughout the mission. To extend mission life, the current operational mode has included 33-day to 56-day campaigns, several times per year.

A metadata table, The Attributes for ICESat Laser Operations Periods, was created in an effort to better educate ICESat/GLAS users on the vertical and horizontal accuracies of the data as well as to provide important information on the laser operating periods and data releases. This table is a single source for much of the important data related to these operational campaigns, and it includes:

• laser transmit energies for the two wavelengths
• laser footprint size and shape
• pointing and geolocation accuracies

Click on one of the links below to download the table in the preferred format:

• Microsoft Excel file (glas_laser_ops_attrib.xls, less than 100 KB)
• Adobe PDF file (glas_laser_ops_attrib.pdf, less than 100 KB)

Please see YXX Release Numbers for information about a new convention for release numbers in file names that was adopted with Release-28.

Airplane/Sailboat Operational Attitude Modes

The ICESat satellite operates in two attitude modes called airplane and sailboat which were named for the orientation of the satellite's solar arrays. Depending on the position of the spacecraft's orbital plane and the sun, the satellite's attitude is changed from airplane to sailboat to accommodate sun angle changes and for power and thermal stability. For more information, please see the ICESat Attitudes document (PDF, 120 KB).

Periods and Coverage

ICESat’s operational periods are summarized in the table below.

Elevation Maps
For consistent illustrations of the temporal and spatial coverage of ICESat's elevation data, please refer to the global, Antarctic, and Arctic maps (accessible from the View Image links in the table) that show the elevation data. For the elevation maps, the lowest elevations (sea level) are shown in dark blue, and the other colors represent elevations above sea level in 500 m increments (see scale bar). All elevations above 4000 m are represented by a dark red color. White represents areas where no elevation data have been obtained; this includes gaps along a single track and between adjacent tracks. Note the relative scale of the polar ice sheets compared to other global, high-elevation land areas; the map projection causes some areal distortion.

Related Data Sets    [top]

The following data sets were generated using ICESat/GLAS data.

• GLAS/ICESat 500 m Laser Altimetry Digital Elevation Model of Antarctica
• GLAS/ICESat 1 km Laser Altimetry Digital Elevation Model of Greenland

Page last updated: 08/14/08