N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Description
This data set (ATL12) contains along-track sea surface heights at variable length scales over cloud-free regions. Estimates of height distributions, surface roughness, surface slope, and apparent reflectance are also provided. The data were acquired by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) observatory.
Version Description
The parameters gt[x]/ssh_segments/heights/xbind, gt[x]/ssh_segments/heights/htybin, gt[x]/ssh_segments/heights/xrbin, and ds_xbin were added to the product to report 10 m bin average heights and averaged photon rate information output by the sea state bias calculation; The ocean histograms were updated to have a center bin with a zero height; New scatter plots were added to the browse images to better visualize the data. Previous browse images for heights and ground tracks are now separated by orbit; The width of the received histogram as determined in fine_sel is now used to create the y histogram in rm_uncertainty, which is then used in char_rss to create simulated photons that are used in fit2g to determine a two Gaussian fit; The moments of Y are now calculated as described in the ATBD for ATL12; The h_kurtosis calculation has been corrected to match the description in the ATBD for ATL12; The length_seg parameter is now calculated as the difference of the along-track x of the first and last signal photons in the ocean segment; A new formula for calculating the 10-m bin average photon rate was implemented.
Product Summary
Platforms
Instruments
Spatial Extent
Spatial Reference System(s)
WGS 84 (EPSG:4326)
Location
GLOBAL OCEAN
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
ORBIT
Temporal Extent
2018-10-13 to 2020-11-11
Temporal Resolution
91 Day
Concept ID
C4124802539-NSIDC_CPRD
Data State
DEPRECATED
Number of Files/Granules
0
Processing Level
3
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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Morison, J., Hancock, D., Dickinson, S., Robbins, J., Roberts, L., Kwok, R., Palm, S., Smith, B., Jasinski, M., & Team, T. I. C. E. S.-2 S. (2020). ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Ocean Surface Height, Version 3 [Data set]. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL12.003 Date Accessed: 2026-06-10
Morison, James, David Hancock, Suzanne Dickinson, John Robbins, Leeann Roberts, Ron Kwok, Steve Palm, Ben Smith, Michael Jasinski, and The ICESat-2 Science Team. “ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Ocean Surface Height, Version 3.” NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, 2020. doi:10.5067/ATLAS/ATL12.003. Date Accessed: 2026-06-10
Morison, James, et al. ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Ocean Surface Height, Version 3. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, 2020, doi:10.5067/ATLAS/ATL12.003. Date Accessed: 2026-06-10
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Documents
ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)
DATA PRODUCT SPECIFICATION
Publications Citing This Dataset
Filters
| Title | Year Sort ascending | Author | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calculation of Deflection of Vertical and Gravity Anomalies Over the South China Sea Derived from ICESat-2 Data | Che, Defu, Li, Hang, Zhang, Shengjun, Ma, Baodong | Terrain Elevation, Vegetation Height, Sea Surface Height | |
| Assessment of ICESat-2 for the recovery of ocean topography | Yu, Yao, Sandwell, David T, Gille, Sarah T, Villas Boas, Ana Beatriz | Terrain Elevation, Sea Surface Height |
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