ICESat-2 Mission Overview: Measuring the Height of the Earth With A Photon-Counting Laser Altimeter

NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) has (as of this writing) collected nearly a full year of global laser altimetry coverage. The ICESat-2 observatory carries the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument, which uses green (532 nm) laser light to measure the distance from the observatory to Earth. ATLAS transmits 10,000 laser pulses per second, and each pulse is split into six individual beams prior on-board. This basis of the range measurement to Earth are individual photons detected by the single-photon sensitive detectors on ATLAS. Combined with data on the observatory position from GPS, and the ATLAS laser beam pointing vectors, in ground processing, we assign unique latitude, longitude and elevation to every photon. These data are now providing an unprecedented look at changes occurring in the polar ice sheets, sea ice, biomass, atmosphere, and ocean. This work will give an overview of the ICESat-2 mission including progress towards meeting mission requirements. Specifically, we will show highlights of high level geophysical data products, their coverage, and example data products. We will also discuss data availability and opportunities for collaborative work.