ICESat-2 Data Products

Product |
Name |
Description |
---|---|---|
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 |
Converted Telemetry Data |
Science-unit-converted time-ordered telemetry data, calibrated for instrument effects. |
ATL03 |
Global Geolocated Photon Data |
Precise latitude, longitude, elevation and time for every received photon. |
ATL04 |
Normalized Relative Backscatter Profiles |
Along-track atmospheric backscatter data. Includes calibration coefficients for polar regions. |
ATL06 |
Land Ice Height |
Along-track surface height and slope for glaciers and ice sheets. |
ATL07 |
Sea Ice Height |
Height of sea ice and open water leads |
ATL08 |
Land and Vegetation Height |
Along-track height of ground and canopy surfaces. |
ATL09 |
Calibrated Backscatter and Atmospheric Layer Characteristics |
Along-track cloud and other significant atmosphere layer heights, blowing snow, integrated backscatter, and optical depth. |
ATL10 |
Sea Ice Freeboard |
Along-track estimates of sea ice freeboard |
ATL11 |
Slope-Corrected Land Ice Height Time Series |
Time series of height at points on the ice sheet, calculated based on repeat tracks and/or cross-overs. |
ATL12 |
Ocean Surface Height |
Global open ocean sea surface height |
ATL13 |
Inland Surface Water Data |
Along-track inland and near shore water surface height distribution |
ATL14 |
Gridded Antarctic and Arctic Land Ice Height |
High-resolution glacier and ice sheet digital elevation model (DEM) |
ATL15 |
Gridded Antarctic and Arctic Land Ice Height Change |
Quarterly, annual and multi-annual height change maps for glaciers and ice sheets |
ATL16 |
Weekly Gridded Atmosphere |
Polar cloud fraction, blowing snow frequency, ground detection frequency. |
ATL17 |
Monthly Gridded Atmosphere |
Polar cloud fraction, blowing snow frequency, ground detection frequency. |
ATL18 |
Land/Canopy Gridded |
Gridded ground surface height, canopy height, and canopy cover estimates. |
ATL19 |
Gridded Dynamic Ocean Topography |
Gridded ocean height product. |
ATL20 |
Gridded Sea Ice Freeboard |
Daily and monthly gridded estimates of sea ice freeboard. |
ATL21 |
Gridded Polar Sea Surface Height |
Daily and monthly gridded sea surface height inside regions of sea ice cover. |
ATL22 |
Mean Inland Surface Water Height |
Mean height for inland water bodies |
ICESat-2 Granules
Each orbit of ICESat-2 data is broken up into 14 granule regions. The granule boundaries limit the size of each ATL03 file and simplify the formation of higher level data products.


ATLAS Beam Strength
The Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) is a photon-counting laser altimeter and the primary instrumentation onboard the ICESat-2 observatory. ATLAS sends and receives data for 6 individual beams that are separated into three beam pairs. The three beam pairs are separated by 3 kilometers, and the two paired beams are separated on the ground by 90 meters. Each beam pair consists of a weak beam and a strong beam, with the strong beam approximately four times brighter than weak. The spots illuminated on the ground from the ATLAS strong beams are numbered 1, 3, and 5, and the spots illuminated on the ground from the ATLAS weak beams are numbered 2, 4, and 6.
The ICESat-2 observatory can be oriented in one of two positions with respect to the direction of travel.
In the forward orientation, the weak beams lead the strong beams and a weak beam is on the left edge of the beam pattern (gt1l
).
This is reversed in the backward orientation, and the strong beams lead the weak beams with a strong beam on the left edge of the beam pattern (Table 1).
The beam strength, spot number, atmospheric profile and spacecraft orientation can all be found as HDF5 attributes of each beam group.
Ground Track
Designation
|
Forward Orientation
Beam Strength
|
Backward Orientation
Beam Strength
|
---|---|---|
|
Weak |
Strong |
|
Strong |
Weak |
|
Weak |
Strong |
|
Strong |
Weak |
|
Weak |
Strong |
|
Strong |
Weak |