The Vital Role of ICESat Data Products

• Main Author: McLennan, Douglas D.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: UND Scholarly Commons 2011
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; Greenland; Antarc*; Arctic Climate Impact Assessment; Climate change; Ice Sheet; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://commons.und.edu/ss-colloquium/16; https://commons.und.edu/context/ss-colloquium/article/1029/type/native/viewcontent

Changes in Ice sheet thicknesses, sea level, and sea ice extent have been explicitly identified as a current priority in the President’s Climate Change Science Program, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, the 4th Assessment Report of the IPCC and other national and international policy documents. In response the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) formulated the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) mission to continue the exploration and understanding of our planet. The ICESat-2 is a remote sensing satellite mission providing coverage of the Earth’s surfaces. The ICESat-2 mission will provide multi-year elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance. It will also provide topography and vegetation data around the globe, in addition to the polar-specific coverage over the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The ICESat-2 observatory is comprised of one instrument, a laser altimeter called ATLAS (Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System). ATLAS is a laser altimeter, utilizing a measurement technique known as photon counting, which is designed to measure ice-sheet topography and associated temporal changes. This presentation will focus on the role of ICESat-2 mission as we monitor the changes in the global cryosphere and the generation and subsequent distribution of data products to the user community. An overview of the mission will also be presented. https://commons.und.edu/ss-colloquium/1029/thumbnail.jpg