The bckgrd_rate parameter (/gt[x]/ssh_segments/stats/) is now read from ATL03 and the mean value for signal photons is written to ATL12 as /gt[x]/ssh_segments/stats/backgr_seg; The input photon arrays used to estimate sea state bias (x, height, time, ocean-segment, and histogram-bin-index/signal-photon-mask) are now sorted by along-track x; All data with heights greater than the shore depth (default = -10 m) are not processed as ocean to ensure ocean processing doesn't occur over land; Changed the processing code and ATL12 template to allow invalid values for significant wave height (/gt[x]/ssh_segments/heights/swh) and sea state bias (/gtx/ssh_segments/heights/bin_ssbias); Fixed errors that caused segments to be skipped after long gaps and along the boundary between two orbits; Updated parameter name "ds_y_bins" to "ds_y_bincenters" in the ATL12 product to be consistent with the ATBD and developmental code; Changed the ocean histogram bin center height edges to eliminate a 0.5 cm ambiguity in histogram statistics; Corrected the order in which surface types are listed on the surf_type_prcnt parameter description; Added an ocean photon selection, boxcar smoothing parameter (/ancillary_data/ocean/pts2bin) and assigned it a default value of 21; Made code updates to modify which residual histogram bins are selected for use. The code now includes a second-pass threshold test based on histogram far tails; Added a tide_equilibrium_seg parameter in /gt[x]/ssh_segments/stats that is the mean of the ATL03 equilibrium tide values for signal photons; Updated the SNRc calculation to use the same process as the deconvolution noise filtering; Shifted the TEP bin center heights to match the fine histogram bin center heights. This allows for better alignment of the surface histogram after Weiner deconvolution of the impulse response.