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The Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) is a scanning LIDAR developed and used by NASA for observing the Earth's topography for several scientific applications, foremost of which is the measurement of changing arctic and antarctic icecaps and glaciers. It typically flies on aircraft at an altitude between 400 and 800 meters above ground level, and measures topography to an accuracy of ten to twenty centimeters by incorporating measurements from GPS (global positioning system) receivers and inertial navigation system (INS) attitude sensors.
The ATM instruments are based at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) in Virginia. They commonly fly aboard the NASA P3-B based at WFF and have flown aboard other P-3 aircraft, the NASA DC-8, several twin-otters (DHC-6), and a C-130. The ATM has flown surveys in Greenland nearly every year since 1993. Other uses have included measurement of sea ice, verification of satellite radar and laser altimeters, and measurement of sea-surface elevation and ocean wave characteristics. The altimeter often flies in conjunction with a variety of other instruments. The ATM has been participating in NASA's Operation IceBridge since 2009.
Instrument Type:
Measurements:
Aircraft:
C-130, DC-8, P-3 Orion, Twin Otter
Update info
ATM spot elevation measurements from the IceBridge era between 2009 and 2014 that are currently available at NSIDC on a local USB drive (data products ILATM1B and ILNSA1).
Total number of ATM spot elevation measurements: 21,021,515,553 = 2.10E+10 = 21.0 Giga shots
Total number of data files (not including accompanying xml files): 19,528
Total data volume: 786.8 GB
To put this into perspective: during the two big 2012 and 2014 Arctic campaigns the number of spot elevation measurements for each campaign exceeds the total number of on-orbit shots (not returns) emitted by ICESat Lasers 1, 2, and 3 from February 2003 through October 2009 by 1.8 and 1.7 times, respectively.
These are only 2 out of 11 ATM IceBridge data products currently available at NSIDC. In addition to this there is also the entire PARCA era available at NSIDC that is not included in these numbers.
Table 3. ATM System Designations by IceBridge Campaign (adapted from NSIDC ILATIM1B documentation)
Year Campaign aircraft Wide ATM System* Narrow ATM System*
(xx) = Full Scan Angle (degrees) (x) = Full Scan Angle (degrees)
2009 Greenland NASA426 P3 4BT2 (30) n/a
2009 Antarctica NASA817 DC8 4CT3 (44) n/a
2010 Greenland (DC-8) NASA817 DC8 4CT3 (44) n/a
2010 Greenland (P-3) NASA426 P3 4BT2 (30) n/a
2010 Antarctica NASA817 DC8 4BT2 (30) n/a
2011 Greenland NASA426 P3 4BT4 (30) 4CT3 (5)**
2011 Antarctica NASA817 DC8 4BT2 (30) 4CT3 (5)**
2012 Greenland NASA426 P3 4BT4 (30) 4CT3 (5)**
2012 Antarctica NASA817 DC8 4BT4 (30) 4CT3 (5)**
2013 Greenland NASA426 P3 4BT4 (30) 4CT3 (5)**
2013 Antarctic (McMurdo) NASA426 P3 4BT4 (30) 4CT3 (5)
2014 Arctic NASA426 P3 4BT4 (30) 4CT3/5AT3 (5)**
2014 Antarctic NASA817 DC8 5BT4 (30) 5AT3 (5)**
2015 Arctic NASA439 C130 5AT3 (30) 5BT5 (5)
2015 Fall Arctic NASA525 Falcon 5BT5 (5) *** n/a
2016 Arctic NOAA43 P3 5AT2 (30) *** n/a
2016 summer Arctic - Barrow NASA524 Falcon n/a 5BT5 (5) ***
2016 summer Arctic - Grnlnd NASA524 Falcon n/a 5BT5 (5) ***
2016 Antarctic NASA817 DC8 6AT6 (30) 5BT5 (5)
2017 Arctic NASA426 P3 6AT6 (30) 5BT5 (5)
2017 Antarctic (McMurdo) NASA426 P3
* The ATM system designation is noted in the filename for each data file.
** Data are provided for sea ice missions only.
*** transceiver is mounted with short axis across swath, ergo swath width is "full scan angle" divided by 1.4
additional notes:
2015 Arctic: narrow swath data was distributed for all missions due to mechanical problems & repair of wide scanner
2015 Fall Arctic: narrow angle scanner flown at high altitude, distributed as wide swath data.
2016 summer arctic- Barrow: narrow angle scanner flown at low altitude, to be distributed as ?? (wide or narrow?)
2016 summer arctic- Greenland: narrow angle scanner flown at high altitude, (to be distributed as wide??)