HR: 0800h
AN: C51B-0276    [Abstracts]
TI: Digital Elevation Models of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets from ICESat
AU: * DiMarzio, J P
EM: john.dimarzio@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: SGT, Inc., NASA/GSFC Cryospheric Sciences Branch Code 614.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Brenner, A C
EM: anita.brenner@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: SSAI, Inc., 10210 Greenbelt Rd. Suite 600, Lanham, MD 20706 United States
AU: Fricker, H A
EM: hafricker@ucsd.edu
AF: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093 United States
AU: Schutz, B E
EM: schutz@csr.utexas.edu
AF: University of Texas, Center for Space Research, Austin, TX 78712 United States
AU: Shuman, C A
EM: Christopher.A.Shuman@nasa.gov
AF: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Cryospheric Sciences Branch Code 614.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Zwally, H J
EM: H.Jay,Zwally@nasa.gov
AF: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Cryospheric Sciences Branch Code 614.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: We present new Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) for the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica created using elevations retrieved from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). The ICESat-derived elevations show significant improvement in precision and coverage compared with those retrieved from the ESA ERS radar altimeter measurements due to both improved tracking over rougher surfaces and the increase in latitudinal coverage from 81.5 to 86°. These DEMs are preliminary versions created from the recent releases of ICESat data, and will be available at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Portions of the DEMs were validated by comparing them to the more precise elevations retrieved from aircraft laser (AL) altimetry. For Northwest Greenland the differences were -41 cm - 44 cm. For the Marie Byrd Land region of Antarctica the differences were -8 cm - 82 cm. The DEMs have applications for climate and ice sheet modeling, as elevation tie points for satellite imagery, and for planning fieldwork.
DE: 0726 Ice sheets
DE: 0758 Remote sensing
DE: 0770 Properties
DE: 0776 Glaciology (1621, 1827, 1863)
DE: 0794 Instruments and techniques
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005