NASA SIMPL and AVIRIS-NG Coordinated Campaign in Support of ICESat-2; July-August, 2015, Thule, Greenland

Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) is a NASA mission scheduled to launch in 2017 and will carry the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), which is a photon-counting laser altimeter and represents a new approach to space-borne determination of surface elevation. In support of ICESat-2, NASA has deployed a series of airborne campaigns required for pre-launch satellite algorithm development. The Slope Imaging Multi-polarization Photon-Counting Lidar (SIMPL) and Airborne Visible-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer - Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) were deployed to Thule, Greenland (July-August, 2015) with 2 science goals: 1) to assess how the lidar surface return, for both sea ice and the ice sheet, is effected in melting conditions; and 2) to investigate how variations in snow grain size effect the lidar surface return over the ice sheet. Each instrument was flown on a separate King Air B-200 in a coordinated airborne mission. This presentation will provide an overview for the campaign and the resultant data products.