Python tools to read elevation data from the NASA ICESat-2 mission
https://icesat-2.gsfc.nasa.gov
https://icesat-2-scf.gsfc.nasa.gov
https://nsidc.org/data/icesat-2/
| Product | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ATL00 | Telemetry Data | Raw ATLAS telemetry in packet format |
| ATL01 | Reformatted Telemetry | Parsed, partially reformatted into HDF5, generated daily, segmented into several minute granules |
| ATL02 | Science Unit Converted Telemetry | Photon time of flight, corrected for instrument effects. Includes all photons, pointing data, spacecraft position, housekeeping data, engineering data, and raw atmospheric profiles, segmented into several minute granules. |
| ATL03 | Global Geolocated Photon Data | Precise latitude, longitude and elevation for every received photon, arranged by beam in the along-track direction. Photons classified by signal vs. background, as well as by surface type (land ice, sea ice, land, ocean), including all geophysical corrections. Segmented into several minute granules. |
| ATL04 | Uncalibrated Backscatter Profiles | Along-track atmospheric backscatter data, 25 times per second. Includes calibration coefficients for polar regions. Segmented into several minute granules. |
| ATL06 | Land Ice Elevation | Surface height for each beam with along- and across-track slopes calculated for each beam pair. Posted at 40m along-track; segmented into several minute granules. |
| ATL07 | Arctic/Antarctic Sea Ice Elevation | Height of sea ice and open water leads at varying length scale based on returned photon rate for each beam presented along-track |
| ATL08 | Land Water Vegetation Elevation | Height of ground including canopy surface posted at variable length scales relative to signal level, for each beam presented along-track. Where data permits include canopy height, canopy cover percentage, surface slope and roughness, and apparent reflectance. |
| ATL09 | Calibrated Backscatter and Cloud Characteristics | Along-track cloud and other significant atmosphere layer heights, blowing snow, integrated backscatter, and optical depth. |
| ATL10 | Arctic/Antarctic Sea Ice Freeboard | Estimate of sea ice freeboard over specific spatial scales using all available sea surface height measurements. Contains statistics of sea surface and sea ice heights. |
| ATL11 | Antarctica / Greenland Ice Sheet H(t) Series | Time series of height at points on the ice sheet, calculated based on repeat tracks and/or cross-overs. |
| ATL12 | Ocean Elevation | Surface height at specific length scale. |
| ATL13 | Inland Water Height | Along-track inland and near shore water surface height distribution within water mask. |
| ATL14 | Antarctica / Greenland Ice Sheet H(t) Gridded | Height maps of each ice sheet for each year based on all available elevation data. |
| ATL15 | Antarctica / Greenland Ice Sheet dh/dt Gridded | Height change maps for each ice sheet, for each mission year, and for the whole mission. |
| ATL16 | ATLAS Atmosphere Weekly | Polar cloud fraction, blowing snow frequency, ground detection frequency. |
| ATL17 | ATLAS Atmosphere Monthly | Polar cloud fraction, blowing snow frequency, ground detection frequency. |
| ATL18 | Land/Canopy Gridded | Gridded ground surface height, canopy height, and canopy cover estimates. |
| ATL19 | Mean Sea Surface (MSS) | Gridded ocean height product. |
| ATL20 | Arctic / Antarctic Gridded Sea Ice Freeboard | Gridded sea ice freeboard. |
| ATL21 | Arctic/Antarctic Gridded Sea Surface Height w/in Sea Ice | Gridded monthly sea surface height inside the sea ice cover. |
Each orbit of ICESat-2 data is broken up into 14 granules. The granule boundaries limit the size of each ATL03 file and simplify the formation of higher level data products.
- Syncs all available ICESat-2 data for a specified data product, release, granule and track.
- The first time we run the script, it will copy the necessary dataset in the selected local directory.
- If we already have all the data, and we run the script again: only files added or modified on the remote server will downloaded.
python nsidc_icesat2_sync.py --user=<username> --password=<password> \
--product=ATL06 --release=205 --granule=10,11,12-D X, --directory: working base data directory
-U X, --user=X: username for NASA Earthdata Login
-P X, --password=X: password for NASA Earthdata Login
--product=X: ICESat-2 Product
--release=X: ICESat-2 Release
--granule=X: ICESat-2 Granule
--track=X: ICESat-2 Track
-M X, --mode=X: Local permissions mode of the directories and files synced
--log: output log of files downloaded
--list: print files to be transferred, but do not execute transfer
-C, --clobber: Overwrite existing data in transfer
Also look into using the NSIDC subsetting API
https://github.com/tsutterley/nsidc-subsetter
Copies ICESat-2 HDF5 files from the SCF server
python copy_scf_ICESat2_files.py --scf_host=<host> --scf_user=<username> \
--product=ATL06 --release=205 --granule=10,11,12 --cycle=1,2 \
--scf_outgoing=<path_to_outgoing> --verbose --mode=0o775-h, --help: list the command line options
--scf_host=X: hostname of the SCF server
--scf_user=X: SCF server username
-D X, --directory=X: local working directory for receiving data
--product=X: ICESat-2 data product to copy
--release=X: ICESat-2 data release to copy
--version=X: ICESat-2 data version to copy
--granule=X: ICESat-2 granule regions to copy
--cycle=X: ICESat-2 cycle to copy
--track=X: ICESat-2 tracks to copy
--scf_incoming=X: directory on the SCF where the rscf sends PANS
--scf_outgoing=X: directory on the SCF where the data resides
-C, --clobber: overwrite existing data in transfer
-V, --verbose: output information about each synced file
-M X, --mode=X: permission mode of directories and files synced
-L, --list: only list files to be transferred
Read ICESat-2 ATL03 and ATL09 data files
- ATL03 datasets: Global Geolocated Photons
- ATL09 datasets: Atmospheric Characteristics
Read ICESat-2 ATL06 data files
- ATL06 datasets: Land Ice Elevation
- numpy: Scientific Computing Tools For Python
- scipy: Scientific Tools for Python
- h5py: Python interface for Hierarchal Data Format 5 (HDF5)
- lxml: processing XML and HTML in Python
- paramiko: Native Python SSHv2 protocol library
- scp: scp module for paramiko
- future: Compatibility layer between Python 2 and Python 3
The program homepage is:
https://github.com/tsutterley/read-icesat-2
A zip archive of the latest version is available directly at:
https://github.com/tsutterley/read-icesat-2/archive/master.zip
This program is not sponsored or maintained by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) or NASA. It is provided here for your convenience but with no guarantees whatsoever.