Assessment of ICESat-2 Ice Sheet Surface Heights, Based on Comparisons over the Interior of the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Abstract

We collected kinematic Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) surface height data, on a 750km groundbased traverse of the flat interior of the Antarctic ice sheet, for comparison with Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite2 (ICESat2) surface heights. Vertical errors in the GNSS data are estimated to be 5.6 cm, comparable to results from a previous traverse and with yeartoyear comparisons. Comparisons of the GNSS heights and 6 months of ICESat2 ATL03 photonbased heights and ATL06 segmentbased heights indicate that the accuracy and precision of ICESat2 data are comparable to that of results from the ICESat mission: ATL03 is currently accurate to better than 5 cm with better than 13 cm of surface measurement precision, while ATL06 is currently accurate to better than 3 cm with better than 9 cm of surface measurement precision