Want to go deeper? NASA, ICESat-2 has the full story and the latest updates.
For Further InformationNASA's ICESat-2 laser fires 10,000 pulses a second to measure ice sheets, sea ice, forests and coastal seafloor in 3D.
Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
Last reviewed: 1 source cited
Polar The curved path an object takes as it travels around a planet, moon or star, like a satellite circling Earth. Glossary, covering ice sheets, sea ice, forests and coasts.
Source: NASA, ICESat-2
Agency solution · active
NASA's ICESat-2 launched on September 15, 2018 and carries a photon-counting laser altimeter that measures the elevation of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, tree canopies and the ocean in 3D detail. The laser pulses 10,000 times a second; each pulse releases about 300 trillion photons, and only about a dozen return. It helps scientists see why, and how much, Earth is changing in a warming climate.
Source: NASA, ICESat-2
New ICESat-2 data even map shallow near-shore seafloor from space.
For Further Information: NASA, ICESat-2
ICESat-2's laser fires 10,000 pulses a second, each with about 300 trillion photons, and only about a dozen return to the satellite.
Want to go deeper? NASA, ICESat-2 has the full story and the latest updates.
For Further InformationMore solutions like this one, matched by meaning.
NASA doesn't take donations, but anyone can join one of its citizen science projects.
Sources are listed with each fact in the Five W's above.
APA
Saving Planets. (n.d.). ICESat-2 (NASA). https://www.savingplanets.com/ICESat-2.html
MLA
"ICESat-2 (NASA)." Saving Planets, https://www.savingplanets.com/ICESat-2.html.
