Continued enhancements to ICESat-2 land ice science product algorithms

Statement of Work (SOW) / Performance Work Statement (PWS)

This document outlines a proposal to develop future-proof land-ice data products for the ICESat-2 project and future altimetry missions. The goal is to ensure high-quality, ongoing records of ice-sheet change using various data sources and to make these products compatible with future data and missions.

This project focuses on improving existing ICESat-2 land-ice data products (ATL11, ATL14/15) and algorithms. Key areas include:

• Continuing time series of ICESat-2-type products, including under different mission scenarios and addressing potential instrumental changes.

• Extending ICESat-2 products to include data from previous missions (ICESat, IceBridge) to create a longer time series.

• Improving product precision by addressing errors from lower-level products and undersampling.

• Enhancing spatial resolution, particularly in Greenland and Antarctica, by incorporating off-track measurements.

• Improving temporal resolution of products.

• Developing algorithms for faster and easier calculations to reduce development time and enable real-time custom product generation.

• Improving access to algorithms through better documentation, demonstration notebooks, and code comments.

• Quarterly updates of ice-front masks and ATL14/15 products are expected.

• Products will be archived at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

• Ancillary products will be archived in public repositories like Zenodo.

• Intermediate and experimental products will be available to the ICESat-2 science team.

• The project aims to extend data records back to 2003 and prepare for future missions in the late 2020s and mid-2030s.

• Work involves data from Antarctica and the Arctic regions (Iceland, Canadian and Russian arctic, Svalbard).

• Algorithms will be made open source and available via GitHub repositories.

• Improved documentation, including web-readable documentation and "cookbook" documents, will be provided.

• Data management plan includes archiving official products at NSIDC and ancillary products in public repositories.

Statement of Work (SOW) / Performance Work Statement (PWS)

This document outlines a proposal to develop future-proof land-ice data products for the ICESat-2 project and future altimetry missions, aiming to provide high-quality records of ice-sheet change under various mission scenarios using diverse data sources.

• Continue time series of ICESat-2-type products: Update ice-front masks quarterly and run algorithms on NASA servers to produce 2-4 ATL14/15 updates annually. Adapt algorithms to maintain data continuity despite potential changes in mission scenarios or measurement geometry.

• Extend ICESat-2 products to include other datasets: Incorporate data from previous missions (ICESat, IceBridge) to extend the laser-altimetry time series back to 2003, and develop algorithms applicable to future missions.

• Improve product precision: Address errors from lower-level products and undersampling by incorporating additional data products or reducing temporal undersampling effects.

• Improve product spatial resolution: Enhance resolution in Greenland and Antarctica by incorporating data from off-repeat tracks to overcome limitations of track-to-track spacing.

• Improve product temporal resolution: Develop methods to achieve finer temporal resolution than the current quarter-annual sampling, potentially by aggregating data over larger areas.

• Develop algorithms for faster and easier calculations: Simplify and improve the efficiency of current algorithms to reduce development time and enable real-time calculation of custom products.

• Improve access to algorithms: Enhance documentation, demonstration notebooks, and code comments for transparency and adoption of algorithms outside the ICESat-2 project.

• Quarterly updates to ice-front masks and ATL14/15 products.

• Development of algorithms compatible with future missions.

• Improved precision, spatial, and temporal resolution of data products.

• Simplified and more efficient computational processes.

• Enhanced documentation and accessibility of algorithms.

Not explicitly stated, but implies ongoing work related to ICESat-2 mission data and future mission planning.

• Compatibility with existing NSIDC data handling strategies.
• Development of algorithms for future missions like EDGE and STV.
• Archiving of official products at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
• Public release of code and documentation via Github repositories.