ICESat-2 By the Numbers
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- Visualizations by:
- Chris Meaney,
- Ryan Fitzgibbons, and
- Greg Shirah
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- Written by:
- Kate Ramsayer
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- Edited by:
- Ryan Fitzgibbons
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- Scientific consulting by:
- Thomas A. Neumann and
- Thorsten Markus
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- Produced by:
- Ryan Fitzgibbons
- View full credits
ICESat-2 is an incredibly precise space laser that features the latest in NASA technology To measure ice heights, engineers have to take ICESat-2’s instrument ATLAS to the extreme – sometimes going big, sometimes going small, but always keeping it precise.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Animators
- Chris Meaney (KBRwyle) [Lead]
- Ryan Fitzgibbons (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
- Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Visualizer
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Writers
- Kate Ramsayer (Telophase) [Lead]
- Ryan Fitzgibbons (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Editor
- Ryan Fitzgibbons (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
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Scientists
- Thomas A. Neumann (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Thorsten Markus (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Producer
- Ryan Fitzgibbons (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
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Narrator
- Ryan Fitzgibbons (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
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Videographers
- Jefferson Beck (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
- John Caldwell (AIMM) [Lead]
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Related pages
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ID: 12663 Produced Video
ICESat-2 Elevates Our View of Earth
Read more"Eternal Circle," Laurent Dury, Koka Media SACEMComplete transcript available. || ICESat-2 will provide scientists with height measurements that create a global portrait of Earth’s third dimension, gathering data that can precisely track changes of terrain including glaciers, sea ice, forests and more. The single instrument on ICESat-2 is ATLAS, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, will measure melting ice sheets and investigate how this effects sea level rise, investigate changes in the mass of ice sheets and glaciers, estimate and study sea ice thickness, and measure the height of vegetation in forests and other ecosystems worldwide. ||
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ID: 11726 Produced Video
ATLAS: Laser Focus
Read moreLaser Focus: TimingDeputy Systems Engineer Phil Luers explains how the ATLAS transmitter and receiver subsystems come together to calculate the timing of photons, which, in turn, measure the elevation of ice.Complete transcript available.Music: "Electric Works" by Philippe Lhommet, Koka Media; "From Source to Sea" by Christophe Lebled, Pierre Jacquot, Koka Media. || Laser Focus: The ReceiverOpto-Mechanical Engineer Tyler Evans explains how the photons that bounce back from Earth are received and filtered by the ATLAS telescope.For complete transcript, click here. ||
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ID: 4373 Visualization
ICESat-2 Orbit
Read moreICESat-2 orbiting Earth: starting with global view building up ground track, then riding the satellite view, then back to a global view with full ground track || ICESat-2 is a spacecraft designed to accurately measure land and ice elevations on Earth. By comparing observations from different times, scientists will be able to study changes in elevations. ICESat-2 will be in a polar orbit which will provide high coverage near the poles where ice elevations are changing relatively quickly. This visualization shows ICESat-2's polar orbit from afar, then closer up. As we get close to the satellite, the 3 pairs of ICESat-2's ATLAS lidar laser beams begin to resolve. A ground track shows ICESat-2's global coverage which repeats about once every 90 days.The ATLAS lidar on ICESat-2 uses 3 pairs of laser beams to measure the earth’s elevation and elevation change. As a global mission, ICESat-2 will collect data over the entire globe, however the ATLAS instrument is optimized to measure land ice and sea ice elevation in the polar regions.For more information on ICESat-2 click here. ||
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ID: 4492 Visualization
ICESat-2 Measurements Over Antarctica (prelaunch)
Read moreICESat-2 has 3 pairs of lasers that will measure the heights of ice and snow at very high resolution || The ATLAS lidar on ICESat-2 uses 6 laser beams to measure the earth’s elevation and elevation change. As a global mission, ICESat-2 will collect data over the entire globe, however the ATLAS instrument is optimized to measure land ice and sea ice elevation in the polar regions. ICESat-2 reports elevations with respect to a reference surface, called an ellipsoid. In this measurement system, shared by GPS devices, an elevation of zero meters indicates the notional sea level, although tides, wind, and waves can make the actual sea level either greater than or less than zero. The Antarctic ice sheet, shown here, ranges up to 4000m above sea level. Over the course of 91 days, ATLAS will generate 1387 ground tracks across Antarctica for each of it’s 6 beams. ||
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ID: 12141 Produced Video
ICESat-2 Beam Pairs
Read moreSide view of the beam pairs. || The ATLAS lidar on ICESat-2 uses 6 laser beams to measure the earth’s elevation and elevation change. By arranging the beams in three pairs of two, scientists can also determine the slope between the two beams, a key component of determining elevation change along the Reference Ground Track. Each time ATLAS collects data along a particular track, onboard software aims the laser beams so that the Reference Ground Track is always between the two beams, as shown in the animation. This allows scientists to combine the elevation and slope information from two different passes to determine elevation change along the Reference Ground Track. ||
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ID: 11712 Produced Video
ICESat-2 Beauty Pass
Read moreAnimation showing the deployment of the spacecraft and a beauty pass with the beams on. || The Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, is a laser altimeter that will measure the heights of Earth’s surfaces. With ICESat-2’s high-resolution data, scientists will track changes to Earth’s ice-covered poles, which is witnessing dramatic temperature increases. The mission will also take stock of forests, map ocean surfaces, characterize clouds and more.ICESat-2 carries a single instrument called the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), equipped with a multiple-beam laser, which sends 10,000 pulses of light to the ground each second. A small fraction of the light photons bounce off Earth’s surface and return to the instrument, where a photon-counting detector times their flight. Knowing this time, and the satellite’s position and orientation in space, scientists can calculate Earth’s elevation below.ICESat-2 continues key elevation observations begun by the original ICESat satellite (2003 to 2009) and Operation IceBridge (2009 through present), to provide a portrait of change in the beginning of the 21st century. ||
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ID: 13062 Produced Video
ICESat-2 Por Los Números (en Español)
Read moreICESat-2 es un láser espacial de gran precisión que integra la tecnología más puntera de la NASA. Para poder medir la altura del hielo del planeta, los ingenieros deben llevar el instrumento ATLAS de ICESat-2 al extremo: a veces yendo a lo grande, otras a lo pequeño, pero siempre manteniéndolo preciso.ICESat-2 is an incredibly precise space laser that features the latest in NASA technology. To measure ice heights, engineers have to take ICESat-2’s instrument ATLAS to the extreme – sometimes going big, sometimes going small, but always keeping it precise.Click here for English-language versions. ||
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