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Full catalog/ATL13QL
ATL13QL·v007·dataset

Heights of rivers and lakes, quick look (ICESat-2)

ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Along Track Inland Surface Water Data Quick Look V007
hydrosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 active HDF5
In plain English

What it measures. The water-surface height of inland water bodies, lakes, reservoirs, rivers, bays and estuaries, measured along the satellite's track, plus extras like wave height and slope.

How it's made. A quick-look version made from the ICESat-2 laser altimeter using the same methods as the final product; these preliminary files are deleted once the final versions are ready.

How & where you'd use it. Lets people watch water levels rise and fall in lakes and rivers soon after measurement. For careful analysis the final (non-quick-look) version is preferred.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER FEATURES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2026-03-11 → ongoing
  • Measured byICESat-2 (ATLAS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -88, 180, 88
  • FormatsHDF5
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Follow rainfall, floods and surface-water extent
  • Track soil moisture and the onset of drought
  • Monitor lakes, rivers and groundwater storage
Official description

ATL13QL is the quick look version of ATL13 and is based on the same algorithms that generate the ATL13 final data products. Once final ATL13 files are available, the corresponding ATL13QL files are removed. ATL13QL provides along-track surface water products for inland water bodies, defined as lakes, reservoirs, bays, estuaries, rivers, and a 7 km near-shore buffer. Data parameters include surface water height statistics and related parameters including significant wave height, transect slope, subsurface signal attenuation, and shallow water bathymetry. Water surface heights are provided as both orthometric height and height referencing the WGS84 ellipsoid.

Get the data

atl13ql_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ATL13QL",
    version="007",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.