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Full catalog/ATL24
ATL24·v001·dataset

Depth of shallow coastal water (ICESat-2)

ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Along Track Coastal and Nearshore Bathymetry V001
ocean NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 active HDF5
In plain English

What it measures. The depth of shallow coastal and nearshore water along the satellite's track, including seafloor and sea-surface heights and the resulting water depths, plus estimates of how uncertain each value is.

How it's made. Derived from individual laser-light photons recorded by ICESat-2, corrected for the way light bends as it passes from air into water.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for mapping shallow coastal seabeds, supporting navigation and coastal management, and studying nearshore environments where traditional surveys are hard to reach.

What's measured

OCEANS › BATHYMETRY/SEAFLOOR TOPOGRAPHY › BATHYMETRY › COASTAL BATHYMETRYOCEANS › SEA SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY › SEA SURFACE HEIGHT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-10-14 → ongoing
  • Measured byICESat-2 (ATLAS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -88, 180, 88
  • FormatsHDF5
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
  • Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
  • Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description

ATL24 provides global along-track coastal and nearshore bathymetry, consisting of refraction-corrected seafloor and sea surface heights (orthometric and ellipsoidal heights and instantaneous depths), as well as associated uncertainties. The data are derived from ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data (ATL03).

Get the data

atl24_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ATL24",
    version="001",
    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.