ICESat Calibration and Validation Experiments at White Sands, New Mexico, 2003-2010
Abstract
The Center for Space Research (CSR) at the University of Texas at Austin has operated a primary site for ICESat cal/val activities near the White Sands Space Harbor (WSSH) area of the White Sands Missile Range, NM. This site was chosen for both geophysical (flat, reflective) and logistical (domestic, secure site) reasons. Before launch in 2003, a several-hundred-meter-scale grid comprised of hundreds of numbered PVC base-plates was installed at the chosen site to permanently mark the locations of various pieces of experiment hardware. In summary, CSR has supported four primary types of experiments at the cal/val site: (1) a permanent grid of laser retro-reflectors (corner cube reflectors) placed on top of poles of various known heights and collocated with 25 of the base plates, in use for the duration of the mission, (2) a set of computer-monitored position and timing detectors utilized for cal/val during the first three years of the project, (3) several camera-equipped aircraft flyovers of the area designed to capture images of the green and infrared footprints on the surface at the precise time of ICESat overflights, (4) elevation comparisons between the ICESat data and a high-resolution (1 m) DEM derived via small-footprint airborne lidar collections in 2003 and 2007. The experiments at WSSH were targeted by the ICESat spacecraft approximately four times per campaign, making this cal/val site one of the most sampled locations in the world. This presentation will chronicle the extensive collection of ICESat and experimental data collected at WSSH from 2003 to 2010.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.C41A0487S
- Keywords:
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- 0758 CRYOSPHERE / Remote sensing;
- 1240 GEODESY AND GRAVITY / Satellite geodesy: results