HR: 08:30h
AN: C21B-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on the ICESat Mission: Science Measurement Performance since Launch
AU: Sun, X
EM: Xiaoli.Sun@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics, Mail Code 920, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: * Abshire, J B
EM: James.Abshire@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics, Mail Code 920, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Riris, H
EM: Haris.Riris@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: Sigma Research and Engineering, 4801 Forbes Blvd, Lanham, MD 20706 United States
AU: McGarry, J
EM: Jan.McGarry@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics, Mail Code 920, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Sirota, M
EM: Marcos.Sirota@sigmaspace.com
AF: Sigma Research and Engineering, 4801 Forbes Blvd, Lanham, MD 20706 United States
AB: The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System is a space lidar and the primary instrument on NASA's ICESat mision. Since launch in January 2003 GLAS has produced about 544 million measurements of the Earth's surface and atmosphere. It has made global measurements of the Earth's icesheets, land topography and atmosphere with unprecedented vertical resolution and accuracy. GLAS was first activated for science measurements in February 2003. Since then its operation and performance has confirmed many pre-launch expectations and exceed a few of the most optimistic expectations in vertical resolution and sensitivity. However GLAS also suffered an unexpected failure with its first laser, and the GLAS measurements have yielded some surprises in other areas. This talk will give a post-launch assessment of the science measurement performance of the GLAS instrument, and compare the measurement environment and its science measurements to pre-launch expectations. It also will address some of what has been learned from the GLAS design, operations and measurements which may benefit future space lidar.
DE: 9310 Antarctica
DE: 9315 Arctic region
DE: 9805 Instruments useful in three or more fields
DE: 1827 Glaciology (1863)
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting