ICESat-2 Land and Vegetation Height (ATL08) Data Available for Subsetting & Visualization

Visualization of ATL08, the along-track data product, with the raw photons and the 100m step size estimate of canopy height and terrain height.

ATL08 data visualized along-track (100m step size), showing the estimated ground elevation, estimated canopy top height, and the individual photon return heights with their classifications. Image credit: Amy Neuenschwander, Center for Space Research, University of Texas.

The ORNL DAAC is pleased to announce that ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height, Version 5 (ATL08) data is now available to in the ORNL DAAC’s MODIS/VIIRS Global Subsets tool. Adding the ATL08 data to the Global Subsets tool was enabled by the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) making ATL08 data available in Earthdata Cloud.

ATL08 provides surface elevation and vegetation height measurements based on photon counting lidar. The data are in fixed 100 m segments along the orbit track based on a WGS84 ellipsoid. The data was acquired by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) platform. See the ATL08 User Guide for additional details.

The MODIS/VIIRS Subsets tool also provides subsetting services for terrain elevation, canopy height and aboveground biomass datasets from NASA’s GEDI mission. Information on the MODIS/VIIRS subsetting tool, as well as tutorials and further resources, can be found here.

Citation: Neuenschwander, A. L., K. L. Pitts, B. P. Jelley, J. Robbins, B. Klotz, S. C. Popescu, R. F. Nelson, D. Harding, D. Pederson, and R. Sheridan. (2021). ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height, Version 5 [Data Set]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL08.005. Date Accessed 02-01-2023.