WHAT IS ICESAT?
ICESat (Ice, Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite) is the benchmark Earth Observing System mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics. The ICESat mission will provide multi-year elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance as well as cloud property information, especially for stratospheric clouds common over polar areas. 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.
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WHAT'S NEW?
- ICESat II Workshop Report
- Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visit NASA/GSFC!
- Hot off the Press! See new Press Releases
- Hot off the Press! See new Publications
- Click here for Orbit Data
DATA
ICESat data are distributed by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). GLAS produces 16 data products including Levels 1A, 1B, and 2 laser altimetry and atmospheric lidar data. Visit this website...
IMAGERY
This figure illustrates ice sheet elevation and cloud data from ICESat's GLAS on its first day of operation February 20, 2003. For more information on this image, and to view more images, click on the picture or follow this link...
LAUNCH
Launch Successful: January 12,2003 16:45 PST Launch Vehicle: Boeing Delta II.
View more launch pictures and animationICESAT HOME
ICESAT Fact:
The ICESAT mission and the GLAS Instrument have reached an important milestone when it recorded 1,000,000,000 measurements while in orbit, on Friday November 18, 2005.
