NSF COLDEX 2023-24: Laser Altimeter Surface Elevation Triplets for Dome A, Antarctica

Laser altimetry data collected during the 2023-24 NSF COLDEX airborne campaign over the southern flank of East Antarctica's Dome A. The Level 2 product provides calculated ice surface elevation based on laser range and aircraft position data, formatted as tab-delimited text files. Data were authored by Duncan Young and last updated in October 2025.

Use Cases

• Model ice flow dynamics based on surface elevation constraints mentioned in the description.
• Validate and calibrate digital terrain models (e.g., REMAv2) based on the reported median bias of 17 cm.
• Analyze high-resolution surface topography based on the laser's effective 25m x 1m footprint.
• Study geodetic positioning and sensor calibration using the documented pointing biases and lever arm offsets.

Strengths

• High precision indicated by a root mean squared (RMS) difference of 20 cm compared to a reference model and 6.8 cm at internal profile intersections.
• Specific sensor and processing metadata is provided, including pointing biases (roll: 0.340°, pitch: -0.505°) and lever arm offsets.
• Data are in a consistent, documented format matching similar IceBridge ILUTP2 altimetry products.

Limitations

• Row count and total file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale projects.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the general format description after download.
• Some cloud filtering was performed, which may introduce gaps or biases in the surface coverage.

Provenance

Source

Texas Data Repository Harvested Dataverse

Collection Method

Airborne laser altimetry collected during the NSF COLDEX CXA2 campaign, with positioning from a Novatel GPS receiver and an iMAR FSAS IMU.

Time Range

2023-24

Freshness

Last updated 2025-10 15 06:39:39; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern flank of East Antarctica's Dome A.