ICESat

1
ICESat

• Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation satellite was
  launched 1/12/03into a 590 km sun-synch orbit
• Whats the inclination?
• Two single-axis articulated solar array wings
• Science instrument includes
• a laser system to measure distance
• a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver
• a star-tracker attitude determination system
• The laser will transmit 4 ns pulses of infrared
  light (1064 nanometers wavelength) and visible
  green light (532 nanometers)
• Photons reflected from surface of Earth and
  atmosphere will be collected in a 1 meter
  diameter telescope
• Laser pulses at 40 Hz will illuminate footprints
  70 meters in diameter, spaced at 170-meter
  intervals along Earth's surface