Point-to-point ICESat-2 vs CryoSat-2 comparison
<p>For measuring the mass balance of mountain glaciers, the combination of ICESat-2 and CryoSat-2 data holds the potential to improve both spatial and temporal coverage and measurement quality. Both satellite missions are dedicated to measuring the surface elevation in the cryosphere and complement each other. While CryoSat-2 brings a high spatiotemporal coverage, ICESat-2 measures at high accuracy. CryoSat-2 on its own suffers from measurement biases because its radar waves partly penetrate the firn layer and because of the size of its footprint. The laser altimeter ICESat-2, on the other hand, cannot provide the desired spatiotemporal coverage at all locations. By combining the data, we gain surface elevation estimates with a reduced bias (for the CryoSat-2 data) and an improved coverage at the same time. A combined dataset could provide us with better insight into the effects of extreme weather events and the impact of climate change on glacier dynamics on a sub-regional scale and its influence on the inter-seasonal variability. Here, we present insights into the bias of CryoSat-2 data, which we retrieve using different swath processors, with regards to the ATL06 ICESat-2 data. We compare the data point-to-point to study how the surface conditions influence the observed bias for two test regions featuring a complex topography and a high track density.</p>