Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation (ICESat / GLAS Data)

NSIDC distributes 15 Level-1 and Level-2 data products from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument that was aboard the NASA Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation (ICESat) satellite. Launched on 12 January 2003, after seven years in orbit and 18 laser-operations campaigns, the ICESat's science mission ended due to the failure of its primary instrument. The main objective of the GLAS instrument was to measure ice sheet elevations and changes in elevation through time. Secondary objectives included measurement of cloud and aerosol height profiles, land elevation and vegetation cover, and sea ice thickness (© 2016, National Snow and Ice Data Center :: Advancing knowledge of Earth's frozen regions).