Launched on September 15, 2018, from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California, the NASA Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2, or ICESat-2, carries a photon-counting laser altimeter that allows scientists to measure the elevation of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, tree canopy height, ocean height, and more - all in unprecedented ...

ICESat-2's data is free and accessible to scientists and the public through the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC). In the table below, we have provided access to the data tools and access portals currently available. You can also read …

The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, measures the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. Launched September 15, 2018, ICESat-2 carries a photon-counting laser altimeter that allows scientists to measure the elevation of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and more - all in ...

ICESat-2 provides scientists with height measurements that create a global portrait of Earth’s 3rd dimension, gathering data that can precisely track changes of terrain including glaciers, sea ice, forests and more.

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 ICESat-2 spacecraft provides power and orbit control for ATLAS, the mission's height-measuring instrument. The spacecraft also supplies propulsion, navigation, attitude control, thermal control, data storage and handling, ground communication, and more.

ICESat-2 carries a single instrument – the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, or ATLAS. Like the altimeter on the first ICESat mission, ATLAS measures the travel times of laser pulses to calculate the distance between the spacecraft and Earth’s surface.

Over the polar areas and oceans, ICESat-2 will repeat its ground tracks every 91 days as it orbits; over land the satellite will point slightly off the RGT to measure more of Earth’s forests. The transitions between repeat-track pointing and off-pointing are included in these ground tracks.

The applications program connects ICESat-2 science to practical societal needs. It facilitates and fosters new collaborations, with the realized expectations that ICESat-2 data has benefits beyond what the mission currently imagines.

ICESat-2 shall produce an ice surface elevation product that enables determination of surface elevation change rates for dynamic ice features that are intersected by its set of repeated ground-tracks to an accuracy of less than or equal to 0.4 m/yr along 1 kilometer track segments.