-ATL02 improved TOF, range calibrations, and range bias correction (average change in range is about -0.7 mm).
-ATL02 added a variable to the first photon bias and radiometric correction tables to reflect invalid correction values due to unreliable calibration values. New variable max_valid_stren_strong carried from ATL02 for rad_corr (CAL19) and ffb_corr (CAL34).
-Moved from ITRF2014 to ITRF2020. Up to a 7 mm regional height change, maximum values at poles.
-ANC03/04 products generated from POD solutions use updated global modeling.
-Correction to the center-of-mass data set generation in ANC04, which should shift the z-component by ~1.0–1.2 cm during airplane mode periods (solar array, i.e., SADA). Airplane/sailboat changes are documented in the Major Activities Table, under the yaw flip changes.
-ANC05 products were calibrated using results from recent full mission week calibration solutions.
-Used GEOS5-IT for atmosphere delay calculation from NASA GMAO. No significant height change from v6 based on ~1 month of photon-to-photon comparisons
-Updated tide model from GOT4.8 to an extrapolated FES2014b for ocean, load and long-period tides. FES2014b has a higher spatial resolution, improved predictions, and improved near-shore coverage. Land masks are not applied to the tide parameters on ATL03. No adverse systemic change in affected parameters between v6 and v7. Parameters affected in /gtx/geophys_corr include tide_ocean, tide_load, and tide_equilibrium.
-Updated weight_ph to use DDA-03’s Radial Basis Function Normalized for Instrument Characteristics. This allows weight_ph values to be consistent across all ICESat-2 data, as opposed to v6 where weight_ph values were normalized within a geosegment.
-Added signal_class_ph as experimental DDA-03 parameter to classify photons using algorithms developed for evaluating weight_ph.
-Updated quality_ph to include flag values to identify noise bursts and streaks, and all photons in a pulse that are considered nearly or fully saturated and whether the return occurs at the surface, after pulse, impulse response. v6 flag values of 1 and 2 are obsolete in v7.
-Added beta_angle and orbit_angle at geoseg rate, carried forward from ATL03g.
-Cloud optimization of H5 files for more efficient access/use in cloud environments.
-Product metadata updates.