HR: 1340h
AN: C23A-0940    [Abstracts]
TI: Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation (ICESat) Satellite Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) of Greenland and Antarctica at NSIDC
AU: * Korn, D L
EM: dkorn@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center/CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, United States
AU: Scambos, T
EM: teds@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center/CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, United States
AU: Haran, T
EM: tharan@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center/CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, United States
AU: Fowler, D
EM: dfowler@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow and Ice Data Center/CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, United States
AU: Zwally, J
AF: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 614.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771,
AU: DiMarzio, J
AF: Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, Inc. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Cryospheric Sciences Branch, Greenbelt, MD 20771,
AB: The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument aboard the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation (ICESat) satellite launched on 12 January 2003. The primary objective of the ICESat mission is to provide global measurements of polar ice sheet elevation to discern changes in ice volume and ice sheet mass balance over time. Secondary objectives of the mission are to measure sea ice thickness, cloud and atmospheric properties, land topography, vegetation canopy heights, ocean surface topography, and surface reflectivity. The GLAS instrument has three lasers, each of which has a 1064 nm laser channel for surface altimetry and dense cloud heights, and a 532 nm lidar channel for the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols. Here we present information about 2 DEMs now available at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, one for Antarctica and one for Greenland. The ICESat/GLAS Antarctic DEM has a 500m grid spacing and the Greenland one has 1km grid spacing. They are both derived solely from GLAS/ICESat laser altimetry profile data from the first seven operational periods (from February 2003 through June 2005) of the GLAS instrument. The ICESat Antarctic DEM provides unprecedented detail for regions between 81.5 S and 86.0 S, because of the higher orbital inclination of ICESat relative to past satellite altimeters. However, some artifacts remain in these early DEMs as a result of gridding, cloud effects, and the relatively large spacing between orbit track lines at lower latitudes (e.g., > 20km at 70 N and S) We will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these laser altimetry derived DEMs.
DE: 0700 CRYOSPHERE (4540)
DE: 0726 Ice sheets
DE: 0758 Remote sensing
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting