First Results Emerge from ICESat-2, Satellite Measuring Earth’s Ice Elevation
More than a trillion new measurements of the Earth’s surface height are now available to the public as the first results of ICESat-2, a mission devoted to measuring the changing height of Earth’s ice. Launched last September, the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 carries the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), an instrument that sends 10,000 laser pulses a second to Earth’s surface. It measures the height of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, and vegetation by …