The Glacier and Ice Surface Topography Interferometer (GLISTIN-A) is an airborne, interferometric synthetic aperture radar. It operates in the Ka-band (35.6 GHz), allowing the instrument to penetrate the top layers of snow and limit atmospheric attenuation. It is the Ka-band version of UAVSAR.

GLISTIN-A provides measurements of glacial and land ice surface topography and elevation at a spatial resolution of around 3 m. GLISTIN-A is ideal for measuring ice sheet elevation and studying glacial topographic changes due to its high spatial resolution and accuracy.

The Ka-band center frequency maximizes the single-pass interferometric accuracy (which is proportional to the wavelength), reduces snow penetration (when compared with lower frequencies), and remains relatively impervious to atmospheric attenuation.

Imaging capabilities that are important for mapping large areas. Imaging allows features to be tracked with time for estimation of ice motion and reduces data noise when measuring topographic changes over rough surfaces of glaciers and coastal regions of ice sheets.


Instrument specifics

  • Status: ACTIVE
  • Type: interferometric synthetic aperture radar
  • 35.66 GHz, 8mm wavelength

Platform(s)

  • GIII

Products

glacier and ice sheet topography

Campaigns flown

  • OMG
  • SnowEx
  • Hawaii
  • Alaska

Contact

Yunling Lou

Get Data

PO.DAAC

In the News

JPL news search results

Links

IEEE paper

UAVSAR site

Keywords

cryosphere, topography, volcano,