ICESat

Ice, Clouds and Land Elevation Satellite

past Mission

Type

Orbiter

Launch

Jan. 13, 2003

Target

Earth

Objective

Measure Earth's polar ice sheets, clouds, mountains and forests

ICESat was the benchmark Earth Observing System mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics.

ICESat Stories

Explore All ICESat (Ice, Clouds and Land Elevation Satellite) Stories

Article

7 min read

Bente Eegholm: Ensuring Space Telescopes Have Stellar Vision

Article

4 min read

Pinpointing Tropical Forests with High Ecological ‘Quality’

4 min read

Kennedy Space Center Counts Down to Santa’s Toy Delivery Mission

Article6 years ago

3 min read

Kennedy Space Center Director Looks Ahead to 2018 Key Milestones

Article7 years ago

4 min read

Arctic Sea Ice Annual Minimum Ties Second Lowest on Record

Article8 years ago

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno