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ICESat Lithograph

This still image was generated to be printed as a lithograph for public distribution. [from the litho:] This image illustrates ice sheet elevation and cloud data from ICESat's Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on its first day of operation, February 20, 2003. On that day, the instrument collected a 1064 nm wavelength profile across Antarctica: the lower West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the foreground is separated from the higher East Antarctic Ice Sheet in the background by the steep TransAntarctic Mountains. The elevation profile (in red) is depicted relative to the Earthandapos;s standard ellipsoid with 50x vertical exaggeration. Data collected across floating sea ice and open water of the adjacent Southern Ocean cannot be shown at this scale. Clouds of various thicknesses are indicated by colors changing progressively from light blue (thin clouds) to white (opaque layers). Note that the laser cannot penetrate the thickest clouds causing gaps in the elevation profile below. The RADARSAT (Canadian Space Agency) mosaic is used to illustrate the Antarctic continent.

A view of Antarctica showing ice sheet elevation and cloud data from ICESat    A view of Antarctica showing ice sheet elevation and cloud data from ICESat

Available formats:
  2700 x 1950     TIFF 4 MB
  160 x 80           PNG       22 KB
  320 x 231         JPEG       9 KB
  80 x 40             PNG       11 KB

Animation Number:2978
Completed:2003-11-18
Animators:Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) (Lead)
 Alex Kekesi (GST)
Scientist:Chris Shuman (NASA/GSFC)
Platform/Sensor/Data Set:ICESat/GLAS (2003/02/20)
Keywords:
SVS >> Ice
SVS >> Topography
 
 
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, RADARSAT mosaic of Antarctica (Canadian Space Agency)


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