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Full catalog/IRUAFHF2
IRUAFHF2·v1·dataset

Bedrock depth and ice thickness from airborne radar (Alaska)

IceBridge UAF L2 HF Bed Elevation and Ice Thickness V001
atmosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 2 ASCII
In plain English

What it measures. For glaciers in Alaska and northwestern Canada: the height of the ice surface, the depth of the bedrock underneath, and how thick the ice is between them.

How it's made. Built from aircraft surveys — laser scanning measured the surface while radar pinged through the ice to find the bedrock — flown as part of NASA's Operation IceBridge, reported point by point along each flight line.

How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists figure out how much ice glaciers hold and how they might change, which feeds estimates of future melt and sea-level rise.

What's measured

CLIMATE INDICATORS › CRYOSPHERIC INDICATORS › GLACIAL MEASUREMENTS › GLACIER ELEVATION/ICE SHEET ELEVATIONCLIMATE INDICATORS › CRYOSPHERIC INDICATORS › GLACIAL MEASUREMENTS › GLACIER/ICE SHEET THICKNESS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2013-03-22 → 2016-08-16
  • Measured byDHC-3 (RADAR ECHO SOUNDERS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-157, 56, -129, 63
  • FormatsASCII
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

This data set contains measurements of glacier surface elevation, bed elevation, and ice thickness for Alaska and Northwestern Canada. Glacier surface elevation is derived from IceBridge UAF Lidar Scanner L1B Geolocated Surface Elevation Triplets (ILAKS1B). Radar bed returns are sourced from IceBridge UAF L1B HF Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles (IRUAFHF1B) to provide glacier bed elevation and ice thickness. Radar-derived ice thickness and glacier bed elevation are provided as per-trace measurements from the corresponding L1B radar echo strength profile (referencing the WGS 84 ellipsoid).

Get the data

iruafhf2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="IRUAFHF2",
    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.