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Full catalog/ILSNP4
ILSNP4·v1·dataset

Surface slope and heights from airborne lidar (IceBridge)

IceBridge Merged Photon Counting Lidar/Profiler L4 Surface Slope and Elevations V001
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 4 HDF5
In plain English

What it measures. Surface elevation and the slope of the surface over Antarctica, measured along aircraft flight lines.

How it's made. Built from two airborne laser instruments (a photon-counting lidar and a laser altimeter) flown during the ICECAP project, with support from NASA's Operation IceBridge.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study the shape and changes of the Antarctic ice surface, complementing satellite ice-elevation records.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIER ELEVATION/ICE SHEET ELEVATIONCRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE › SEA ICE ELEVATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2010-11-25 → 2012-12-04
  • Measured byBT-67 (Sigma Space Lidar)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, -53
  • FormatsHDF5
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Measure sea ice, snow cover and glaciers
  • Watch ice-sheet elevation change
  • Track freeze/thaw and permafrost
Official description

This data set contains geolocated surface elevation measurements captured over Antarctica using the Sigma Space Mapping Photon Counting Lidar and Riegl Laser Altimeter. The data were collected by scientists working on the International Collaborative Exploration of the Cryosphere through Airborne Profiling (ICECAP) project, which was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Collaborative Research Center, and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) with additional support from NASA Operation IceBridge.

Get the data

ilsnp4_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ILSNP4",
    version="1",
    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.