ICESat 2: Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2)
The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, measures the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. Launched September 15, 2018, ICESat-2 carries a photon-counting laser altimeter that allows scientists to measure the elevation of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and more - all in unprecedented detail.
Organizations
Launch Date
August 2018
Class
Flight Project
Website
Key Staffs
Support Scientist
Receiver Algorithms Lead
Senior Support Scientist
Calibration Team Member
Sr. Test Systems Engineer
Programmer
Project Scientist
Deputy Project Scientist
Deputy Project Scientist
Instrument Scientist
The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, measures the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. Launched September 15, 2018, ICESat-2 carries a photon-counting laser altimeter that allows scientists to measure the elevation of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and more - all in unprecedented detail.
Related Publications
2026.
"Altimetry Data from ICESat-2 Brings Value to the Private Sector.",
Remote Sensing,
18
(8):
1114
[10.3390/rs18081114]
[Journal Article/Letter]
2025.
"Global Climatologies of Vegetation Aerodynamic Roughness for Momentum: A Fusion of MODIS and ICESat‐2 Observations (d0s, DOY 001-171).",
Zenodo,
(2):
[Full Text]
[10.5281/zenodo.15449804]
[Dataset]
2025.
"Global Climatologies of Vegetation Aerodynamic Roughness for Momentum: A Fusion of MODIS and ICESat‐2 Observations.",
Earth and Space Science,
12
(8):
e2023EA003027
[10.1029/2023ea003027]
[Journal Article/Letter]
2026.
"ICESat-2 land ice products resolve Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheet height changes on seasonal to multiyear time scales.",
Journal of Glaciology,
[10.1017/jog.2026.10152]
[Journal Article/Letter]