ICESat-2 Bathymetry

[Example Repo Text - Not Yet Approved by the Working Group]

Interested in using ICESat-2 bathymetry data or exploring current research? This repository contains information about current and past research collected by members of the ICESat-2 bathymetry working group.

What can ICESat-2 do?

The ICESat-2 mission is a satellite laser altimeter launched in 2018. It's photon counting lidar makes precise elevation measurements globally, including at high-latitudes. In addition to significant contributions to glaciology and forest mapping, ICESat-2 has proven capable of measuring the depth of the seafloor with sub-meter accuracy, and as deep as 40m in good conditions.

What's the best way to access ICESat-2 data?

The Science Team maintains a list of general ICESat-2 tools available here.

The working group is currently in the process of creating a bathymetric data product. Until then, users should download the geolocated photon data product ATL03 which contains all photon data. We recommend starting with NSIDC or SlideRule.

For bathymetry focused data downloading tutorials, check out one of the demo notebooks here or here.

How do I correct depth data for refraction?

Refraction-corrected depths are not currently calculated for existing data, although this will likely be included on a future bathymetric product. The approach outlined in Parrish, Magruder et al. 2019 has been frequently used and validated in research, although new approaches have been explored in the literature as well.

Code implementations of Parrish 2019 are available in Python (missing link) and MATLAB (missing link).

How do I extract the water surface and seafloor returns?

Photon data can be labeled by hand using the OpenOceans Manual Classification Tool or PhotonLabeler tools.

Automated methods of labeling large amounts of data are an open area of research. Which method is best may depend on your use case and desired accuracy.

EXTRACTION CODE 1 BY WORKING GROUP MEMBER

• Description here
• Link to publication

EXTRACTION CODE 2 BY WORKING GROUP MEMBER

• Description here
• Link to publication

Extaction approaches without code or by non working group members.

Featured Member Research

Recent Datasets by Members

Bahamas Median DEM, from A PURELY SPACEBORNE OPEN SOURCE APPROACH FOR REGIONAL BATHYMETRY MAPPING (2022).

• Description here from Nathan.

Kd532 Estimation from ICESat-2 Photon Data

• Description here from Forrest

Already Labeled Data (missing link)

• This ICESat-2 photon data has been manually labeled by working group members.

Good Bathymetry Example Tracks (missing link)

Other Useful Datasets

• NOAA Digital Coast - Repository for NOAA survey data. In particular, elevation data and topobathymetric lidar surveys available here have been useful for validation of ICESat-2 depth data.

Publications

The working group also maintains a shared Zotero library of ICESat-2 bathymetry related publications.

To be added to this library, contact XXXX. Alternatively, we could make this library public by default and add a link to automatically get added.

Membership

We could also list members and ways to contact the working group if so desired.

Member 1 [email protected] Affiliation 1