GLAS/ICESat L2 Global Aerosol Vertical Structure Data, Version 18

The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument on the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) provides global measurements of polar ice sheet elevation to discern changes in ice volume (mass balance) over time. Secondary objectives of GLAS are to measure sea ice roughness and thickness, cloud and atmospheric properties, land topography, vegetation canopy heights, ocean surface topography, and surface reflectivity.

GLAS has a 1064 nm laser channel for surface altimetry and dense cloud heights, and a 532 nm lidar channel for the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols.

Level-2 aerosol vertical structure data (GLA10) contain the attenuation-corrected cloud and aerosol backscatter and extinction profiles at a 4 sec sampling rate for aerosols and a 1 sec rate for clouds.

Each data granule has an associated browse product that users can quickly view to determine the general quality of the data in the granule. Browse products consist of image plots of key parameters and statistics. Data are in scaled integer binary format, big-endian (Unix) byte order, and are available via FTP.

搭载于冰、云与陆地高程卫星（Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite，ICESat）的地球科学激光测高系统（Geoscience Laser Altimeter System，GLAS）可开展极地冰盖高程的全球观测，以解析冰体体积（物质平衡）随时间的变化。GLAS的次要科学目标包括海冰粗糙度与厚度、云与大气特性、陆地地形、植被冠层高度、海洋表面地形及地表反射率的测量。
GLAS配备两类激光通道：1064纳米激光通道用于地表测高与浓密云高探测，532纳米激光雷达（lidar）通道则用于获取云与气溶胶的垂直分布信息。
二级气溶胶垂直结构数据（GLA10）包含经衰减校正的云与气溶胶后向散射及消光廓线，其采样速率分别为气溶胶每4秒采集一次、云体每1秒采集一次。
每份数据颗粒均配有配套的浏览产品，供用户快速查看以判定该数据颗粒的整体质量。浏览产品包含关键参数与统计量的图像绘图。数据采用缩放整数二进制格式，字节序为大端（Unix系统标准），可通过文件传输协议（FTP）获取。