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Deputy Systems Engineer Phil Luers explains how the ATLAS transmitter and receiver subsystems come together to calculate the timing of photons, which, in turn, measure the elevation of ice.

Credits:
NASA/GSFC
Music: "Electric Works" by Philippe Lhommet, Koka Media; "From Source to Sea" by Christophe Lebled, Pierre Jacquot, Koka Media.

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Official ICESat-2 mission patch logo.

The box structure of the ATLAS instrument takes shape in the cleanroom at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, as engineers carefully connect and attach different electrical components and fiber optics.

PhoREAL Geospatial Analysis Toolbox Demonstration 2020

ICESat-2 Applications Town Hall at AGU 2020

ICESat-2 will provide scientists with height measurements that create a global portrait of Earth’s third dimension, gathering data that can precisely track changes of terrain including glaciers, sea ice, forests and more.

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Video Credit: NASA/GSFC

NASA cryospheric scientist Kelly Brunt and ICESat-2 Deputy Project Scientist Tom Neumann recall some of the highlights and challenges from the recent 88-South Antarctic Traverse.

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Video Credit: NASA/GSFC

An engineer attaches components to ICESat-2's beryllium telescope, before it is attached to the satellite's ATLAS instrument.

Engineers and technicians check the fit of ICESat-2’s telescope to its sling, before moving it into place on the instrument’s optical bench.

Pho, a plucky bright green photon of light, must travel from a NASA spacecraft down to Earth and back again to help complete a crucial science mission in this educational short film.

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To deliver the instrument safely to the spacecraft for assembly and testing, the ATLAS team developed special procedures for packing, transporting and monitoring the sensitive hardware.

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Video Credit: NASA/GSFC

Learn more about ICESat-2!

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If ICESat-2 flew over a football field, it would take measurements within each yard line (green circles) – plus there's six of these green laser beams taking measurements at once!
The first ICESat instrument only fired 40 times a second, and would have taken a measurement in each end zone (red circles).

Overview video of the Cryo2Ice Mission created by the European Space Agency. The orbit of CryoSat-2 has been slightly changed to align periodically with ICESat-2. This will provide almost simultaneous radar and lidar measurements over the same ice.

The ATLAS lidar on ICESat-2 uses 6 laser beams to measure the earth’s elevation and elevation change. This animation shows the beam tracks on Earth as the satellite passes overhead.

Video Credit: NASA/GSFC
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ICESat-2 will measure the height of ice and its features, such as this glacial melt pond photographed July 16, 2014, over Alaska.

With extreme cold-weather gear, scientific instruments, and two tank-like snow machines called PistenBullys, ICESat-2 scientists traversed along section of the 88-degree south latitude line in an arc around the South Pole. 

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Video Credit: NASA/GSFC

To develop the computer programs that will crunch the raw data gathered by ICESat-2, the mission flew a series of campaigns with the MABEL instrument, which gathers similar information.

In Photon Jump, a 3-minute short animation, a brave photon of light named Pho must travel from a NASA spacecraft down to Earth and back again to help complete a crucial science mission. The animation was created by the ICESat-2/SCAD Collaborative Student Project involving students and faculty from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Video Credit: NASA/GSFC

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In this artist's concept of ICESat-2, the satellite's laser beams are visible as it orbits.

Engineers check on the box structure section of the ATLAS instrument, with the optical bench — with telescope attached — in the foreground. ATLAS is the sole instrument on the ICESat-2 satellite, and will measure the height of Earth.

#PhotonPhriday was a weekly look at how ICESat-2 measures Earth – from Antarctic dunes to the Bahamas to Greenland’s glaciers. Check out the profiles of our planet below!

5/31    Disko Bay, Greenland

6/7      Pine Island Glacier

6/14    Grand Canyon, AZ

6/21    Nantucket, MA

6/28    Jakobshavn, Greenland

7/4      Yosemite Valley, CA

7/12    Crane Glacier, Antarctica

7/19    Cape Canaveral, FL

7/26    Crater Lake, OR

8/2      Mount Everest, Nepal

8/9      West Central Greenland meltponds

8/16    Los Angeles, CA

8/23    Great Bahama Bank

8/30    Dunes in Morocco; Megadunes in Antarctica

9/6      Nares Strait, Greenland

9/13    Gilbert, AZ

9/20    Nordenskiold Glacier, Greenland

9/27    Sequoia National Park, CA

10/4    Lake Mead, NV

10/11  Denali, AK

10/18  Rhine, France

10/25  Norwegian fjords

10/31  Transylvanian Alps

11/8    French Polynesian atolls

11/15  Forests of Botswana

11/22  Smoke clouds from Sonoma Fires

11/29  Black Forest (Germany), Black Sea (Istanbul), Black Canyon (Gunnison, CO)

12/6    San Francisco, CA

12/13  Cascade Mountains, Washington

With extreme cold-weather gear, scientific instruments, and two tank-like snow machines called PistenBullys, ICESat-2 scientists traversed along section of the 88-degree south latitude line in an arc around the South Pole. 

Download high resolution video here.

Video Credit: NASA/GSFC

Laser Focus: The Receiver

Opto-Mechanical Engineer Tyler Evans explains how the photons that bounce back from Earth are received and filtered by the ATLAS telescope.

Video Credit: NASA/GSFC

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Opto-Mechanical Engineer Tyler Evans illustrates how the laser is transmitted from the ATLAS instrument on the ICESat-2 spacecraft.

Video Credit: NASA/GSFC

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