THIS DOCUMENT OUTLINES THE PROPOSED EFFORT FOR A NASA ICE CLOUD AND LAND ELEVATION SATCLLITE-2 VALIDATION ACTIVITY THAT LEVERAGES PAST WORK PERFORMED FOR THE ORIGINAL ICESAT USING INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENTS OF THE SATELLITE DERIVED GEOLOCATION AND THE ELEVATION MEASUREMENT ONCE THE LASER ALTIMETER IS ON-ORBIT. ULTIMATELY REGIONAL VALIDATION EFFORTS ISOLATE SPCCIILC MEASUREMENTS FOR UNCERTAINTY ESTIMATES OF INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTS; WHICH IS WHAT THIS PROPOSED WORK WILL PROVIDE FOR THE GEOLOCATION AND HEIGHT MEASUREMENTS WITHIN ATLOJ. THE LCESAT-2 REQUIREMENT FOR ATL03 DATA PRODUCT GEOLOCATION KNOWLEDGE IS 6.5 M. THE POSITIONAL AND HEIGHT ACCURACY OF ATLOJ AFFECTS THE HIGHER LEVEL GEOPHYSICAL DATA PRODUCTS SUCH THAT VALIDATION RESULTS WILL PROPAGATE TO FURTHER UNDERSTANDING OF DATA INTERPRETATION AND PRODUCT QUALITY PRODUCED BY THE LEVEL JA ALGORITHMS. THE GROUND-BASED VALIDATION EFFORTS THAT WERE SUCCESSFUL IN THE PAST WILL REQUIRE NEW RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TO INCLUDE THOSE LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE PREVIOUS IMPLEMENTATION AND EXECUTION AND TO ACCOMMODATE THE TECHNICAL DISPARITIES BETWEEN THE ICESAT AND ICESAT-2 MISSIONS. THE PROPOSED WORK WILL SPECIFICALLY FOCUS ON EXTRACTING SATELLITE DETECTED SIGNAL SIGNATURES FROM CORNER CUBE RETRO-REFLECTORS (CCRS) AT KNOWN LOCATIONS ON THE SURFACE TO VALIDATE THE ICESAT-2 DERIVED GEOLOCATION. ADDITIONALLY IF THE CCRS ARE PLACED AT A HEIGHT ABOVE THE GROUND TO SEPARATE THEIR RETURNS FROM THE SURFACE RETURNS THE CCR SIGNAL CAN ALSO PROVIDE INDEPENDENT KNOWLEDGE OF POTENTIAL RANGE BIASES THROUGH THE COMPARISON WITH THE SATELLITE ELEVATION MEASUREMENT. IN SOME CASES PRECISION OF THE SURFACE MEASUREMENT CAN BE DETERMINED IF MULTIPLE RETURNS ARE COLLECTED OVER A SINGLE CCR. PREVIOUS ANALYSIS OF PROXY FLIGHTS OVER CCRS USING THE ENGINEERING TESTBED MABEL (MULTIPLE ALTIMETER BEAM EXPERIMENTAL LIDAR) HAVE PROVIDED A REPRESENTATIVE USE CASE FOR THE APPLICATION TO PHOTONCOUNTING LIDAR VALIDATION (MAGRUDER AND BRUNT 2017). USING THE MABEL ANALYSIS AS A GUIDE FOR ICESAT-2 VALIDATION THERE IS A CLEAR PATH TOWARD DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION THAT REQUIRE PRE-LAUNCH STUDIES SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND FIELD WORK IN ADDITION TO THE: EFFORT ASSOCIATED WITH ON-ORBIT DATA ACQUISITION AND ANALYSIS. SIMILAR TO USING A CCR AS A GROUND CONTROL POINT WITHIN THE ICESAT-2 GROUND TRACK FOR GEOLOCATION AND ELEVATION VALIDATION SPECIFIC TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES CAN ALSO PROVIDE A REFERENCE WITHIN THE ALTIMETER ELEVATION PROFILES IF THE FEATURES ARE DISTINCT AND WITHIN THE SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF THE DATA. AS SUCH THIS WORK WILL INCLUDE THE COLLECTION OF A HIGH RESOLUTION AIRBORNE LIDAR SURVEY AT THE VALIDATION SITE. THESE DATA PROVIDE KNOWN LOCATIONS FOR THE AFOREMENTIONED GEOGRAPHIC CONTROL POINTS WITHIN THE. SCENE BUT ALSO PROVIDE THEIR OWN ASSESSMENT OF THE ELEVATION FOR COMPARISON TO THE ATLOJ PRODUCT. FURTHERMORE THE AIRBORNE DATA WILL FACILITATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRECISION OF THE ICESAT-2 MEASUREMENTS WHICH ALLOW FOR POTENTIAL INSIGHT INTO THE INSTRUMENT RESPONSE THE SURFACE INTERPRETATION ALGORITHM AND TIMING ARTIFACTS. THIS ACTIVITY WILL BE PERFORMED AT WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE IN NEW MEXICO PRIMARILY BECAUSE IT OFFERS ADVANTAGE IN THE SENSE THAT THE SURFACE BAS BEEN WELL CHARACTERIZED IN THE PAST AND IS KNOWN TO PROVIDE A FAIRLY HOMOGENEOUS SURFACE IN TERMS OF SLOPE AND ELEVATION. HOWEVER IT DOES HAVE SOME: DISTINCT GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES THAT ARE POISED TO BECOME GROUND CONTROL POINTS WITHIN THE AIRBORNE SURVEY. THE PROPOSED EFFORT WILL BE COMPLETED WITHIN A 24 MONTH PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE AND WILL BEGIN IN JULY 2017 WITH THE INITIAL OPTIMIZATION STUDY FOR CCU PLACEMENT CONFIGURATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATED CCR SIGNATURE ANALYSIS SOFTWARE. THE AIRBORNE LIDAR COLLECTION WILL BE PERFORMED IN THE SPRING OR SUMMER PRIOR TO LAUNCH IN 2018 AND SUBSEQUENT ANALYSIS ONCE ON-ORBIT WILL OCCUR CONSISTENTLY UNTIL THE END OF THE CONTRACT.