ICESat-2 Photon Classification: Finding Signal Photons in the ATL03 Geolocated Photon Data Product
ICESat-2 carries NASA's next-generation laser altimeter, ATLAS, (Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System), designed to measure changes in ice sheet height, sea ice freeboard, and vegetation canopy height. ATLAS contains a photon-counting lidar which transmits green (532-nm) pulses at 10kHz....
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20190000308 2023-05-15T16:40:41+02:00 ICESat-2 Photon Classification: Finding Signal Photons in the ATL03 Geolocated Photon Data Product Brenner, Anita C. Neumann, Thomas Lee, Jeffrey E. Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available December 10, 2018 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20190000308 unknown Document ID: 20190000308 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20190000308 Copyright, Public use permitted CASI Earth Resources and Remote Sensing GSFC-E-DAA-TN63918 2018 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting; 10-14 Dec. 2018; Washington, DC; United States 2018 ftnasantrs 2019-07-20T23:07:02Z ICESat-2 carries NASA's next-generation laser altimeter, ATLAS, (Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System), designed to measure changes in ice sheet height, sea ice freeboard, and vegetation canopy height. ATLAS contains a photon-counting lidar which transmits green (532-nm) pulses at 10kHz. Each pulse is split into 3 pairs of beams (one strong and one weak). Approximately 1014 photons per pulse travel from ATLAS through the atmosphere to reflect off the Earth's surface. Some return back into the ATLAS telescope where they are recorded. Photons from sunlight and instrument noise at the same wavelength are also recorded. The flight software time tags all photons within a 500m to 6 km range window and generates histograms. Using the histograms, it selects a telemetry window which varies from 20m over flat surfaces to hundreds of meters over rougher terrain. ATL03 contains the time, height (relative to the WGS-84 ellipsoid), latitude and longitude of every photon within the telemetry window. The basic challenge is to determine which of these photons were reflected off the surface. We have developed an algorithm that identifies these signal photons and assigns a confidence level (low, medium, or high) to each signal photon based on the signal to noise ratio. We present an overview of the signal identification algorithm and show the results on actual ICESat-2 data over ice sheet, sea ice, vegetated, and water surfaces. Higher level ATLAS products work with aggregations of the photons in order to determine the ellipsoidal height of the Earth, canopy height and structure, and other quantities of geophysical interest. Other/Unknown Material Ice Sheet Sea ice NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
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Earth Resources and Remote Sensing |
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Earth Resources and Remote Sensing Brenner, Anita C. Neumann, Thomas Lee, Jeffrey E. ICESat-2 Photon Classification: Finding Signal Photons in the ATL03 Geolocated Photon Data Product |
topic_facet |
Earth Resources and Remote Sensing |
description |
ICESat-2 carries NASA's next-generation laser altimeter, ATLAS, (Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System), designed to measure changes in ice sheet height, sea ice freeboard, and vegetation canopy height. ATLAS contains a photon-counting lidar which transmits green (532-nm) pulses at 10kHz. Each pulse is split into 3 pairs of beams (one strong and one weak). Approximately 1014 photons per pulse travel from ATLAS through the atmosphere to reflect off the Earth's surface. Some return back into the ATLAS telescope where they are recorded. Photons from sunlight and instrument noise at the same wavelength are also recorded. The flight software time tags all photons within a 500m to 6 km range window and generates histograms. Using the histograms, it selects a telemetry window which varies from 20m over flat surfaces to hundreds of meters over rougher terrain. ATL03 contains the time, height (relative to the WGS-84 ellipsoid), latitude and longitude of every photon within the telemetry window. The basic challenge is to determine which of these photons were reflected off the surface. We have developed an algorithm that identifies these signal photons and assigns a confidence level (low, medium, or high) to each signal photon based on the signal to noise ratio. We present an overview of the signal identification algorithm and show the results on actual ICESat-2 data over ice sheet, sea ice, vegetated, and water surfaces. Higher level ATLAS products work with aggregations of the photons in order to determine the ellipsoidal height of the Earth, canopy height and structure, and other quantities of geophysical interest. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Brenner, Anita C. Neumann, Thomas Lee, Jeffrey E. |
author_facet |
Brenner, Anita C. Neumann, Thomas Lee, Jeffrey E. |
author_sort |
Brenner, Anita C. |
title |
ICESat-2 Photon Classification: Finding Signal Photons in the ATL03 Geolocated Photon Data Product |
title_short |
ICESat-2 Photon Classification: Finding Signal Photons in the ATL03 Geolocated Photon Data Product |
title_full |
ICESat-2 Photon Classification: Finding Signal Photons in the ATL03 Geolocated Photon Data Product |
title_fullStr |
ICESat-2 Photon Classification: Finding Signal Photons in the ATL03 Geolocated Photon Data Product |
title_full_unstemmed |
ICESat-2 Photon Classification: Finding Signal Photons in the ATL03 Geolocated Photon Data Product |
title_sort |
icesat-2 photon classification: finding signal photons in the atl03 geolocated photon data product |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20190000308 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
genre |
Ice Sheet Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet Sea ice |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20190000308 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20190000308 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Public use permitted |
_version_ |
1766031101521821696 |