Evaluation of ICESat-2 ATL08 Data Product: Performance Assessment in Inland Water

Abstract

Advanced Topographic Laser System (ATLAS) instrument on-board NASA's Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) enabled the capability of detecting certain properties of the Earth's surface at a photon level. Primary applications of ICESat-2 are for cryosphere but extendable to measure and determine the changes in elevation for land terrain and canopy. ICESat-2 ATL08 data product is a level 3A product that contains the best fit height above a reference ellipsoid processed in fixed 100 m data segments, which typically uses more than 100 signal photons from level 2 product namely ATL03. In this article, ICESat-2 ATL08 has been evaluated for its accuracy. Accuracy assessment of a point ellipsoidal height can be done using known benchmarks or survey points. In the absence of known points, the performance of these points can be assessed by hydro-flatness test as well as by comparing the satellite observed surface water level with gauged water table height. Both these tests have been done on 5 large reservoirs in the Indian sub-continent. Hydro-flatness test on ICESat-2’s ATL08 data product determined the permissible variations that occur on the surface water body due to ripples, wavelets, and streaks at a centimeter-level. Water level from ICESat-2 data will be in ellipsoidal height and cannot be compared with gauged data as it gives the height of the water surface above an established altitude where the stage is zero, because of this we have compared the change of surface water level from different dates. The results indicate that the surface water levels from ICESat-2’s ATL08 data product are in line with gauged data at centimeter-level accuracy.