THE PRIMARY GOAL OF OPERATION ICEBRIDGE (OIB) IS TO EXTEND THE ALTIMETRY RECORD OF ICESAT (2003-2009) UNTIL THE LAUNCH OF ICESAT-2 (2017) WITH THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF GENERATING MULTI-DECADAL CONTINUOUS HEIGHT-CHANGE TIME SERIES OVER KEY REGIONS OF THE ICE SHEETS AND SEA ICE. OIB S ATM SWATH LASER ALTIMETER WILL BE A DATASET KEY FOR GROUND TRUTHING INITIAL ICESAT-2 OBSERVATIONS AND CROSS-CALIBRATING ICESAT ICESAT-2 AND OTHER SATELLITE ALTIMETRY TIME SERIES. INITIAL WORK FROM OUR GROUP ANALYZING ATM SWATH ALTIMETRY IN EAST ANTARCTICA REVEALED A BIAS BETWEEN FORWARD- AND REVERSE- LOOKING ELEVATION RETRIEVALS OVER A FAST-FLOWING OUTLET GLACIER. INSTRUMENTAL ERRORS OF THIS MAGNITUDE WILL IMPACT THE ABILITY OF OIB TO MEET ITS PRIMARY OBJECTIVE; THEREFORE WE PROPOSE TO IDENTIFY AND QUANTIFY ANY LIMITATIONS OF ATM SWATH ALTIMETRY ACROSS ANTARCTICA AS WELL AS DESIGN AN OIB SURVEY OF THE SALAR DE UYUNI SALT FLATIN BOLIVIA IN ORDER TO PROVIDE A COMMON REFERENCE FOR INTERMISSION COMPARISONS. AFTER DEVELOPING AND EXECUTING METHODS FOR QUANTIFYING ERRORS IN ATM DATA ACROSS ANTARCTICA WE WILL USE ATM SWATH OBSERVATIONS TO CROSS-CALIBRATE MULTIPLE SATELLITE ALTIMETRY MISSIONS (I.E. ICESAT ICESAT-2 AND WHERE APPROPRIATE CRYOSAT-2) AND GENERATE INTERNALLY CONSISTENT LONG-DURATION TIME SERIES OVER DYNAMIC FEATURES SUCH AS ICE-SHELF CHANNELS GROUNDING ZONES AND SUBGLACIAL LAKES. THE MAIN BENEFIT OF FOCUSING ON DYNAMIC FEATURES IS THAT WE CAN MEASURE A RANGE OF HEIGHT-CHANGE SIGNALS OVER A SHORT TIME PERIOD IN ORDER TO QUICKLY EVALUATE ICESAT-2 ON-ORBIT CAPABILITIES; THIS WILL PROVIDE RAPID VALIDATION OF ICESAT-2 OBSERVATIONS AND DEMONSTRATE THE ABILITY TO LINK SATELLITE ALTIMETRY MISSIONS THROUGH ROBUST METHODS.