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Description

This data set (ATL03) contains height above the WGS 84 ellipsoid (ITRF2014 reference frame), latitude, longitude, and time for all photons downlinked by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) observatory. The ATL03 product was designed to be a single source for all photon data and ancillary information needed by higher-level ATLAS/ICESat-2 products. As such, it also includes spacecraft and instrument parameters and ancillary data not explicitly required for ATL03.

Version Description

Added the equilibrium tide as a parameter (/gtx/geophys_corr/tide_eq); Corrected the ph_id_channel description; Added additional ATLAS housekeeping/status values from ATL02 to the /atlas_engineering group to fully describe the ATLAS configuration state; Adopted an improved inland water mask; Added DEM height and flag at the 20m geolocation segment rate. DEM height (/gtx/geophys_corr/dem_h) is the best available height from one of several region-specific and global DEMs. The DEM flag indicates the DEM from which the height was retrieved; Added a composite flag for POD/PPD quality at the 20m geolocation segment rate; Updated default uncertainties (sigma_h = 30 m; sigma_along = 20 m; sigma_across = 20 m; sigma_lat ~= 0.00018 deg; and sigma_lon = 0.00018 deg) to better represent actual uncertainties in the ATL03 photon data.

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
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
ORBIT
Temporal Extent
2018-10-13 to 2019-11-15
Temporal Resolution
91 Day
Concept ID
C4102137613-NSIDC_CPRD
Data State
DEPRECATED
Number of Files/Granules
0
Processing Level
2A
Published
Science Keywords
Terrain Elevation

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

Neumann, T., Brenner, A., Hancock, D., Luthcke, S., Lee, J., Robbins, J., Harbeck, K., Saba, J., Brunt, K., Gibbons, A., & Et Al. (2019). ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, Version 2 [Data set]. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL03.002 Date Accessed: 2026-05-11

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