N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Description
This data set (ATL03) contains height above the WGS 84 ellipsoid (ITRF2014 reference frame), latitude, longitude, and time for all photons downlinked by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) observatory. The ATL03 product was designed to be a single source for all photon data and ancillary information needed by higher-level ATLAS/ICESat-2 products. As such, it also includes spacecraft and instrument parameters and ancillary data not explicitly required for ATL03.
Version Description
Added a QA parameter that indicates the percent of reference photons within a certain distance from the reference DEM (at the geolocation segment rate); Fixed a logic error in the code that combines the POD and PPD degrade values. In conjunction with this fix, the definition of the podppd_flag parameter was changed to simply indicate if POD, PPD, or both report, in general, a degraded geolocation solution; Effectively removed from consideration by the signal classification processing any photons from telemetry bands that do not intersect the DEM height within a +/- 30 m buffer. Additionally, photons that are poorly geolocated (as indicated by the podppd_flag) are no longer classified as potential signal; Created two new parameters (near_sat_frac and full_sat_frac) that indicate nearly or fully saturated ATLAS shots.
Product Summary
Platforms
Instruments
Spatial Extent
Spatial Reference System(s)
WGS 84 (EPSG:4326)
Location
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
ORBIT
Temporal Extent
2018-10-13 to 2020-11-11
Temporal Resolution
91 Day
Concept ID
C2010866407-NSIDC_CPRD
Data State
DEPRECATED
Number of Files/Granules
0
Processing Level
2A
Published
Science Keywords
Citation
Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.
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Neumann, T., Brenner, A., Hancock, D., Robbins, J., Saba, J., Harbeck, K., Gibbons, A., Lee, J., Luthcke, S., Rebold, T., & Et Al. (2020). ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, Version 3 [Data set]. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.003 Date Accessed: 2026-06-14
Neumann, Thomas, Anita Brenner, David Hancock, John Robbins, Jack Saba, Kaitlin Harbeck, Aim??e Gibbons, et al. “ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, Version 3.” NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, 2020. doi:10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.003. Date Accessed: 2026-06-14
Neumann, Thomas, et al. ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, Version 3. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, 2020, doi:10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.003. Date Accessed: 2026-06-14
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Documents
ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)
DATA PRODUCT SPECIFICATION
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