GLAS/ICESat L1A Global Engineering Data, Version 33

• Main Authors: NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, National Snow and Ice Data Center
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Ice Sheet; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/sha256:9a19f42a0c1410c5b8297e6c55c1ad1d917d750d2488f221b6fd3c5b87dcd34e

NOTE ON GLAS BINARY DATA: Access to all ICESat/GLAS binary data products at NSIDC DAAC was removed 01 August 2017.The Binary Data Subsetter also has been decommissioned.ICESat/GLAS data remain available in HDF5 format. The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument on the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) provides global measurements of polar ice sheet elevation to discern changes in ice volume (mass balance) over time. Secondary objectives of GLAS are to measure sea ice roughness and thickness, cloud and atmospheric properties, land topography, vegetation canopy heights, ocean surface topography, and surface reflectivity. GLAS has a 1064 nm laser channel for surface altimetry and dense cloud heights, and a 532 nm lidar channel for the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols. Level-1A global engineering data (GLA03) include satellite housekeeping data used to calibrate data values for GLA01 and GLA02. Data are in scaled integer binary format, big-endian (Unix) byte order.