THE BENEFIT TO NASA WILL BE HIGH QUALITY HIGH-RESOLUTION SEA-ICE THICKNESS SNOW DEPTH AND LAND-ICE ELEVATION DATA PRODUCTS FOR USE BY NASA SCIENTISTS. THERE IS STRONG SYNERGY BETWEEN THE POLAR IST MISSION AND NASA ICESAT-2. THE USPI POSITION WILL ALLOW FOR SYNERGY IN MEASUREMENT REQUIREMENTS AND DATA PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS BETWEEN THE TWO MISSIONS. MOREOVER BASED ON LESSONS LEARNED DURING THE EARLY STAGES OF ICESAT-2 COMMISSIONING AND OPERATIONS THE PI WILL BE IN A STRONG POSITION TO SUGGEST RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO AND OPTIMIZATIONS OF THE POLAR IST RETRIEVAL ALGORITHMS WHILE THEY ARE STILL BEING FORMULATED. RESULTS FROM THE INVESTIGATION WILL ADDRESS SPECIFIC QUESTIONS RELATED TO CHANGES IN THE MASS OF THE EARTH S ICE COVER AS POSED UNDER THE CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND CHANGE FOCUS AREA OF NASA S SCIENCE PLAN.

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators