Assessment of NASA airborne laser altimetry data using ground-based GPS data near Summit Station, Greenland

Brunt, Kelly M.; Hawley, Robert L.; Lutz, Eric R.; Studinger, Michael; Sonntag, John G.; Hofton, Michelle A.; Andrews, Lauren C.; Neumann, Thomas A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-681-2017

Articles | Volume 11, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-681-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-681-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 2

Research article

|

08 Mar 2017

Research article |

| 08 Mar 2017

Assessment of NASA airborne laser altimetry data using ground-based GPS data near Summit Station, Greenland

Kelly M. Brunt, Robert L. Hawley, Eric R. Lutz, Michael Studinger, John G. Sonntag, Michelle A. Hofton, Lauren C. Andrews, and Thomas A. Neumann

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-681-2017-supplement

Data sets

Base station GPS data UNAVCO Data Archive Interface http://unavco.org/data/gps-gnss/data-access-methods/dai2/app/dai2.html

NASA ATM and the LVIS (2010) data NSIDC Operation IceBridge Data Portal http://nsidc.org/icebridge/portal/

Pre-IceBridge LVIS data (2007) NSIDC https://nsidc.org/data/blvis2

MABEL ICESat-2 simulation data NASA Goddard Space Flight Center http://icesat-2.gsfc.nasa.gov/icesat2/data/mabel/mabel_docs.php

Short summary

This manuscript presents an analysis of NASA airborne lidar data based on in situ GPS measurements from the interior of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Results show that for two airborne altimeters, surface elevation biases are less than 0.12 m and measurement precisions are 0.09 m or better. The study concludes that two NASA airborne lidars are sufficiently characterized to form part of a satellite data validation strategy, specifically for ICESat-2, scheduled to launch in 2018.