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Full catalog/ATL28
ATL28·v001·dataset

Ground and treetop heights, monthly (ICESat-2)

ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3B Monthly Gridded Terrain and Canopy Elevation Parameters V001
biosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 active COG
In plain English

What it measures. Provides gridded, monthly measurements of ground elevation and treetop (canopy) height across the landscape.

How it's made. Built from ICESat-2's laser height measurements of land and vegetation, aggregated into monthly gridded summaries.

How & where you'd use it. Helps track terrain and forest canopy height over time, supporting studies of vegetation, carbon, and land change.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › CANOPY CHARACTERISTICSLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-10-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byICESat-2 (ATLAS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -70, 180, 90
  • FormatsCOG
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description

The ATL18 and ATL28 data products comprise several gridded terrain and canopy elevation parameters derived from the 20 m geosegment height measurements of ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height (ATL08). ATL18 is a composite of data over the entire mission, while ATL28 provides monthly data.

Get the data

atl28_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ATL28",
    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.