Overview of the ICESat Mission

TLDR

GLAS on ICESat delivers unprecedented 3‑D Earth observations, primarily for polar ice mass balance but also for land topography, hydrology, vegetation, cloud, and aerosol studies. The series of papers in this issue demonstrate the utility and quality of ICESat data. Early laser life issues were mitigated by adopting 33‑day operation periods, three times per year, to document intra‑ and inter‑annual polar ice changes per mission requirements. Calibration/validation experiments confirm that fully calibrated elevation products meet science accuracy requirements.

Abstract

The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on the NASA Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) has provided a view of the Earth in three dimensions with unprecedented accuracy. Although the primary objectives focus on polar ice sheet mass balance, the GLAS measurements, distributed in 15 science data products, have interdisciplinary application to land topography, hydrology, vegetation canopy heights, cloud heights and atmospheric aerosol distributions. Early laser life issues have been mitigated with the adoption of 33‐day operation periods, three times per year, designed to document intra‐ and inter‐annual polar ice changes in accordance with mission requirements. A variety of calibration/validation experiments have been executed which show that the elevation products, when fully calibrated, have an accuracy that meets the science requirements. The series of papers in this special ICESat issue demonstrate the utility and quality of the ICESat data.