Although the ATLAS instrument is optimized to measure changes in polar sea ice and land ice, as a global mission, ICESat-2 collects elevation data over all surfaces, from pole to pole. The table below summarizes the mission Standard Data Products, which are available through the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The low-level data products are developed through the ICESat-2 project science office. These products include ATL01 and 02 (where photon times of flight are computed and corrected for temperature and voltage effects) and end with ATL03, which provides a latitude, longitude and elevation for each photon. Beyond that, surface-specific data products are developed by experts into those disciplines, and include products for land ice, sea ice, the atmosphere, vegetation and land, oceans and inland water.
The left column contains the product indicator name. Clicking on these product names links to the latest Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) for that product. These ATBDs are updated periodically to remain consistent with the data products.
For ATBDs associated with the previous release, click here.
| ATL00 | Telemetry Data | Raw ATLAS telemetry in packet format |
| ATL01 | Reformatted Telemetry |
Parsed, partially reformatted into HDF5, generated daily, segmented into several minute granules. |
| ATL02 | Science Unit Converted Telemetry |
Photon time of flight, corrected for instrument effects. Includes all photons, pointing data, spacecraft position, housekeeping data, engineering data, and raw atmospheric profiles, segmented into several minute granules. |
| POD | Precise Orbit Determination, Orbit Design & Geolocation Calibration |
Precise orbit determination modeling and implementation, orbit tuning and reference ground track parameters, POD/PPD calibration and validation. |
| PPD | Precision Pointing Determination |
Arcsecond-level knowledge of laser pointing direction for each laser pulse; combined with POD and range measurements to eild the geolocation of laser spots on the surface of the Earth to an accuracy of 6.5 meters. |
| ATL03A | Atmospheric Delay Corrections |
Correcting the laser footprint altitude as a result of atmopsheric path delay, refraction, and other atmospheric properties. |
| ATL03G | Received Photon Geolocation |
General overview of steps/procedures required to provide geolocated heights for each ATLAS photon event, as well as a detailed geolocation algorithm implementation and processing flow specifically designed for the ICESat-2 mission. |
| ATL03 | Global Geolocated Photon Data |
Precise latitude, longitude and elevation for every received photon, arranged by beam in the along-track direction. Photons classified by signal vs. background, as well as by surface type (land ice, sea ice, land, ocean), including all geophysical corrections (e.g. Earth tides, atmospheric delay, etc…). Segmented into several minute granules. |
| ATL04 |
Uncalibrated Backscatter Profiles |
Along-track atmospheric backscatter data, 25 times per second. Includes calibration coefficients for polar regions. Segmented into several minute granules. |
| ATL06 |
Land Ice Elevation |
Surface height for each beam with along- and across-track slopes calculated for each beam pair. Posted at 40m along-track; segmented into several minute granules.
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| ATL07 | Arctic/Antarctic Sea Ice Elevation |
Height of sea ice and open water leads at varying length scale based on returned photon rate for each beam presented along-track. |
| ATL08 | Land Water Vegetation Elevation |
Height of ground including canopy surface posted at variable length scales relative to signal level, for each beam presented along-track. Where data permits include canopy height, canopy cover percentage, surface slope and roughness, and apparent reflectance. |
| ATL09 |
Calibrated Backscatter and Cloud Characteristics |
Along-track cloud and other significant atmosphere layer heights, blowing snow, integrated backscatter, and optical depth. |
| ATL09, Pt. II -- DDA | Density-Dimension Algorithm for Atmospheric Layers & Surface |
Detection of clouds and other atmospheric layers, such as blowing snow and aerosols, and their boundaries in ATLAS data. |
| ATL10 |
Arctic/Antarctic Sea Ice Freeboard |
Estimate of sea ice freeboard over specific spatial scales using all available sea surface height measurements. Contains statistics of sea surface and sea ice heights. |
| ATL11 |
Antarctica / Greenland Ice Sheet H(t) Series |
Time series of height at points on the ice sheet, calculated based on repeat tracks and/or cross-overs. |
| ATL12 |
Ocean Elevation |
Surface height at specific length scale. Where data permits include estimates of height distribution, roughness, surface slope, and apparent reflectance. |
| ATL13 |
Inland Water Height |
Along-track inland and near shore water surface height distribution within water mask. Where data permit, include roughness, slope and aspect |
| ATL14 |
Antarctica / Greenland Ice Sheet H(t) Gridded |
Height maps of each ice sheet for each year based on all available elevation data. |
| ATL15 |
Antarctica / Greenland Ice Sheet dh/dt Gridded |
Height change maps for each ice sheet, for each mission year, and for the whole mission. |
| ATL16 |
ATLAS Atmosphere Weekly |
Polar cloud fraction, blowing snow frequency, ground detection frequency. |
| ATL17 |
ATLAS Atmosphere Monthly |
Polar cloud fraction, blowing snow frequency, ground detection frequency. |
| ATL18 |
Land/Canopy Gridded |
Gridded ground surface height, canopy height, and canopy cover estimates. |
| ATL19 |
Mean Sea Surface (MSS) |
Gridded ocean height product. |
| ATL20 |
Arctic / Antarctic Gridded Sea Ice Freeboard |
Gridded sea ice freeboard. |
| ATL21 |
Arctic/Antarctic Gridded Sea Surface Height w/in Sea Ice |
Gridded monthly sea surface height inside the sea ice cover. |
| ATL22 |
Mean Inland Surface Water |
Mean inland surface water products for each beam transect. |
| ATL23 |
Gridded Ocean Height |
3-Month Gridded Dynamic Ocean Topography.
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