Earth  ID: 2978

ICESat Lithograph

This still image was generated to be printed as a lithograph for public distribution. [from the litho:] This image illustrates ice sheet elevation and cloud data from ICESat's Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on its first day of operation, February 20, 2003. On that day, the instrument collected a 1064 nm wavelength profile across Antarctica: the lower West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the foreground is separated from the higher East Antarctic Ice Sheet in the background by the steep TransAntarctic Mountains. The elevation profile (in red) is depicted relative to the Earthandapos;s standard ellipsoid with 50x vertical exaggeration. Data collected across floating sea ice and open water of the adjacent Southern Ocean cannot be shown at this scale. Clouds of various thicknesses are indicated by colors changing progressively from light blue (thin clouds) to white (opaque layers). Note that the laser cannot penetrate the thickest clouds causing gaps in the elevation profile below. The RADARSAT (Canadian Space Agency) mosaic is used to illustrate the Antarctic continent.
 

Used Elsewhere In


Visualization Credits

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Animator
Christopher Shuman (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, RADARSAT mosaic of Antarctica (Canadian Space Agency)

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/2978

Mission:
Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat)

Data Used:
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

Keywords:
SVS >> Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Land Surface >> Topography
SVS >> For Educators
SVS >> Cloud Cover >> Type
SVS >> Antarctica >> Elevation map
SVS >> Transantarctic Mountains
SVS >> Cloud Cover >> Frequency
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0