Background
The ATLAS altimeter on the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) measures heights across Earth’s surface. Higher-level ICESat-2/ATLAS products include vegetation height, surface water height, and ice height, freeboard, and thickness. The Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG) 2018 assessment found that agencies would benefit significantly from reduced latency of various ICESat-2/ATLAS products, especially those agencies responsible for navigation, commerce, and safety in the presence of sea and lake ice. As a result, this SNWG solution was selected for implementation to reduce the latency from the original 45 days to 3 days for five ICESat-2/ATLAS products.
Status:
Some Data are Available Now with Additional Data Coming Soon
Reduced-latency versions of existing ICESat-2/ATLAS products, with associated uncertainty, have been released and are currently operational. The five quick-look products are discoverable through NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for Earth observation (LANCE) and available at the National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) — with over 600 registered users currently. The longer-latency science products remain available in the permanent data archive.
Investigation of a modified algorithm for a lake ice thickness product is ongoing. In support of the U.S. National Ice Center, the team is also looking into providing quick look products in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) ready formats.
Solution Characteristics
| Products | ATL07QL: Sea Ice Height |
|---|---|
| ATL08QL: Land and Vegetation Height | |
| ATL09QL: Atmospheric Layer Characteristics | |
| ATL10QL: Sea Ice Freeboard | |
| ATL13QL: Inland Surface Water Height | |
| Processing Level | 3A |
| Temporal Coverage | Quick-look data: Most recent months Full mission data: October 2018 to present Note that quick-look data are replaced with final data when available |
| Temporal Resolution | 91-day repeat cycle, 15 orbits per day (The orbit's sub-cycle achieves monthly global coverage) |
| Latency | Approximately 72 hours |
| Spatial Coverage | Global |
| Spatial Resolution | Varies (approximately 10-300 m) |
| Data Format | HDF5 |
Societal Impact
The low-latency ICESat-2/ATLAS products, or ICESat-2 quick looks, help provide accurate and timely ice mapping for safe commercial shipping and fishing. Additionally, they are being used for tracking and monitoring wildfire smoke and supporting icebreaker navigation through sea ice.
Solution Resources
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