Arctic and Antarctic Topography Measurements Using LVIS

Abstract:

Wide-swath, medium-footprint laser altimetry (lidar) is routinely used to monitor large areas of the Arctic, Antarctic and other environs. As part of NASA’s Operation Icebridge and ARISE missions, NASA’s LVIS and LVIS-GH systems operating on medium-high altitude platforms have collected over 350,000km² of surface elevation and structure measurements, providing data sets to both support and enhance future space-based lidar missions such as ICESAT-2 and GEDI. Using the LVIS systems over ice surfaces, typical elevation precision and accuracy is at the 10 cm level, assessed using inter and intra-mission crossovers. An updated version of the LVIS system is under development combining the latest technology with updated and more capable approaches to operating procedures and data processing. The sensor will be available in late summer 2016 as part of a new NASA geodetic imaging lidar facility with goals of providing up to 5 times more data than present with 2 month turnaround at much reduced cost to the end user. A review of data processing approaches will be presented, along with results from the recent ARISE 2014 campaign in the Arctic. Mission highlights included a 1000 km-long transect from open water to sea ice along 140W, a 600 km-long transect along an orbit track of ESA’s Cryosat-2 satellite with the satellite passing directly overhead at the start of the line, repeated passes over the Marginal Ice Zone throughout the ARISE campaign over the time of the sea ice minimum, data swaths along the Columbia, Portage, Spencer, Trail, and Wolverine glaciers in Alaska, and characterization of cloud top heights throughout each flight to interpret the ARISE radiation measurements.