ICESat Data Accumulation Animation

  • Released Monday, February 9th, 2004
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:56PM
  • ID: 20024

Accumulating Data: Glas Builds Its Facts One Point at a Time - The technology behind GLAS is called lidar. Lidar is a distance measuring system similar to radar, except that instead of radio waves it uses pulses of laser light for range finding. The name is a contraction based on the words light and radar: Light Detection And Ranging. A lidar system determines precise distances by measuring the amount of time necessary for a pulse of light to leave an emitter, hit a target, and return. In this case, distance measurements helped researchers determine changes in ice thickness, vegetation, cloud thickness, and much more.



Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab


Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions: