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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

Changes for this version include:
  • Implemented derivation of ice concentration, ice_conc, from Near-Real-Time NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration and added ice concentration, gtx/ssh_segments/stats/ice_conc., to ATL12 Outputs.
  • Added specification of which values of the podppd_flag the ATL12 data would be processed. As of version 5, the podppd_flag will have seven possible values: normal operations vales: 0=NOMINAL; 1=POD_DEGRADE; 2=PPD_DEGRADE; 3=PODPPD_DEGRADE; plus possible calibration maneuver related "CAL" values: 4=CAL_NOMINAL; 5=CAL_POD_DEGRADE; 6=CAL_PPD_DEGRADE; 7=CAL_PODPPD_DEGRADE. For ATL12, we will only use data when the POD/PPD flag indicates nominal normal operations or nominal CAL maneuvers, podppd_flag equal to 0 or 4.

Product Summary

Platforms
ICESat-2
Instruments
ATLAS
Spatial Extent

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

Spatial Reference System(s)
WGS 84 (EPSG:4326)
Location
GLOBAL OCEAN
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
ORBIT
Temporal Extent
2018-10-13 to 2022-10-13
Temporal Resolution
91 Day
Concept ID
C2153574991-NSIDC_CPRD
Data State
DEPRECATED
Number of Files/Granules
0
Processing Level
3
Published
Science Keywords
Sea Surface Height

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

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. (2022). ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Ocean Surface Height, Version 5 [Data set]. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL12.005 Date Accessed: 2026-05-08

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