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 2026
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

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Aerosol column burden3 - highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Aerosol mass mixing ratio3 - highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Aerosol Optical Depth3 - highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Biomass2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Along-track only.Total biomass inferred from the canopy
Cloud drop effective radius5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Cloud ice5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Cloud ice Total Column5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Cloud ice effective radius5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Cloud liquid water (CLW)5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Cloud liquid water (CLW) total column5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Cloud optical depth1 - primaryLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Cloud top height1 - primaryAlong-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Coastal sea level (tide)*5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from sea-ice lidar altimeter
Freezing level height in clouds5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter. Detected as discontinuity
Geoid*2 - very highLong time series needed.. Along-track only.Geoid derived from multi-temporal analysis of lidar altimetry data
Glacier topography1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Along-track only.Specifically designed for sea ice elevation, also useful over land
Gravity field*4 - fairPartial information (geoid).Gravity field derived from multi-temporal analysis of lidar altimetry data
Height of the top of PBL3 - highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter. PBL top detected as discontinuity
Height of the tropopause3 - highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter. Tropopause height detected as discontinuity
Ice sheet topography*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Along-track only.Specifically designed for sea ice elevation, also useful over land
Land surface topography1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Along-track only.Specifically designed for sea ice elevation, also useful over land
Melting layer depth in clouds5 - marginalLow-density cloud only.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter. Detected as discontinuity
Ocean dynamic topography*5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from sea-ice lidar altimeter
PSC occurrence1 - primaryAlong-track only.NIR lidar altimeter
Aerosol volcanic ash3 - highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column3 - highCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.Opportunity information from lidar altimeter
Sea-ice elevation*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Along-track only.NIR lidar altimeter specifically designed for ice elevation
Sea-ice thickness*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Change detection only.. Along-track only.NIR lidar altimeter specifically designed for ice elevation. Thickness inferred by ice model