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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

Changes for Version 6 include:
<ul>
<li>Added parameters for photon weights</li>
<li>Updated sigma_h to be dynamically calculated</li>
<li>Changed data type for ph_id_count to an unsigned 1-byte integer</li>
<li>Changed the geographic extent metadata from a predicted orbit path to a geodetic polygon</li>
<li>Updated the ANC42 transmitter echo path reference file to reflect changes in the ATL02 time-of-flight calculations stemming from calibration file updates</li>
<li>Updated ATL03 photon heights to include an updated zero range point</li>
</ul>

Product Summary

Platforms
ICESat-2
Instruments
ATLAS
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2018-10-13 to 2025-03-03
Concept ID
C2596864127-NSIDC_CPRD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
476285
Processing Level
2A
Published
Science Keywords
Terrain Elevation

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.

Copy Citation

Neumann, T., Brenner, A., Hancock, D., Robbins, J., Gibbons, A., Lee, J., Harbeck, K., Saba, J., Luthcke, S., & Rebold, T. (2023). ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, Version 6 [Data set]. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.006 Date Accessed: 2026-01-11

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