Performance of the GLAS Onboard Surface Detection Algorithm

The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) determines the range from the satellite to the Earth's surface from the time of flight of the instrument's 1064 nm laser pulses, which are generated at a rate of 40 Hz. The time of flight is defined as the difference between the laser transmit time and the time of return of the surface echo. The detector output is digitized with a 1 ns sampling interval, starting before the laser fires and ending well after any possible surface return, for a total of 5.4 million points. Because there is not enough downlink bandwidth for the entire waveform, the algorithm must extract both the transmit and surface echo waveforms from the 5.4 million digitized points, and pass these waveforms on to be included in the science data packets. Results from orbit show the algorithm to be effective at finding the surface echoes. A few features of the algorithm, however, require post-launch modification. One is that cloud cover tends to cause the algorithm to raise the gain, which then causes saturation of surface echoes from clear regions immediately following the clouds. Details of the algorithm, along with specific examples and recent modifications, will be presented.