ICESat-2 surface elevation assessment with kinematic GPS and static GNSS near the ice divide in Greenland

Pickell, Derek J.; Hawley, Robert L.; Felikson, Denis; Good, Jamie C.

doi:10.5194/tc-20-483-2026

Articles | Volume 20, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-483-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-483-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 1

Research article

|

21 Jan 2026

Research article |

| 21 Jan 2026

ICESat-2 surface elevation assessment with kinematic GPS and static GNSS near the ice divide in Greenland

Derek J. Pickell, Robert L. Hawley, Denis Felikson, and Jamie C. Good

Data sets

ICESat/ICESat-2 Traverse: Monthly GPS Surface Elevation Data at Summit Station, Greenland D. J. Pickell et al. https://doi.org/10.21989/D9/0ZOWK2

ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land Ice Height. (ATL06, Version 6) B. Smith et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/ATLAS/ATL06.006

An East-West Network of Twelve Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Stations in the Summit Region of Greenland: RINEX Data, 2022-2025 D. Pickell and R. Hawley https://doi.org/10.18739/A2183446Q

Short summary

We compared ICESat-2 ice surface height measurements in interior Greenland with ground-based Global Positioning System (GPS) observations, finding sub-centimeter biases and centimeter-scale precision with no detectable long-term drift. We also apply an autonomous validation method using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) interferometric reflectometry (GNSS-IR) to measure surface elevation, producing comparable results and enabling more frequent, spatially distributed comparisons.