BackForwardInstrument:  ATLAS 

Instrument details
Acronym ATLAS
Full name Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System
Purpose Polar ice sheet thickness and topography.  Also cloud top height and aerosol
Short description Single wavelength lidar operating at 1064 nm. A Laser Reference System (LRS) gives absolute pointing knowledge.
Background Evolution of GLAS flown on ICESat
Scanning Technique Nadir-only viewing, sampling at 170 m intervals along track, near continuous profiling
Resolution Horizontal: 66 m IFOV sampled at 170 m intervals along track.  Vertical: 10 cm surface, 200 m cloud top
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 183 d (orbit repeat cycle) leaving cross-track 2.5 km gaps at 80° latitude, 15 km at equator
Mass 298 kg Power 300 W Data Rate 450 bps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period: 2019 to 2034
Last update: 2021-06-23
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Active and radio-occultation sensor
  • Lidar (Doppler lidar, backscatter lidar, lidar Dial, lidar altimeter)
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 2
  • Lidar (single wavelength) (in addition to radar missions mentioned in Component 1)
  • Lidar (Altimeter - for surface)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Coastal sea level (tide)
  • Geoid
  • Gravity field
  • Ice sheet topography
  • Ocean dynamic topography
  • Sea-ice elevation
  • Sea-ice thickness
Evaluation of Measurements