# The ATL03 data downloaded by icepyx contained no photon heights data

**URL:** <https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/the-atl03-data-downloaded-by-icepyx-contained-no-photon-heights-data/2639>\
**Category:** ICESat-2\
**Created:** [August 4, 2022, 3:03am UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/the-atl03-data-downloaded-by-icepyx-contained-no-photon-heights-data/2639 "2022-08-04T03:03:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JizheLi111](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/jizheli111/32/1769_2.png) [@JizheLi111](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/JizheLi111)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2022, 3:03am UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/the-atl03-data-downloaded-by-icepyx-contained-no-photon-heights-data/2639/1 "2022-08-04T03:03:32Z")

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The icepyx is a great and convenient package to download the data. However, I met some mistake in downloading the ATL03 data. I chose a certain spatial extent and date range.

code:

# bounding box

short\_name = ‘ATL03’  
spatial\_extent = [129.034162,35.048268,129.121820,35.121367]  
date\_range = [‘2018-10-13’,‘2019-01-03’]

region\_a = ipx.Query(short\_name, spatial\_extent,date\_range)

But the download file (named “processed\_ATL03\_20181111052956\_06660102\_005\_01”) has no photon height data in group gtx. The file size is also much smaller than download directly from the website (56.9MB vs 3.27GB). I wonder if I made some stupid mistake and forget to set some important parameters or this error was caused by other reasons.

The code environment is Anaconda(Spyder) Python 3.7.6 icepyx 0.6.3

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**Author:** ![jiatabardillo](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/jiatabardillo/32/2177_2.png) [@jiatabardillo](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/jiatabardillo)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 7:26am UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/the-atl03-data-downloaded-by-icepyx-contained-no-photon-heights-data/2639/2 "2023-03-30T07:26:38Z")

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any updates on this? it also happens to me

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**Author:** ![Nathan\_Thomas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/nathan_thomas/32/2201_2.png) [@Nathan\_Thomas](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/Nathan_Thomas)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 3:29pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/the-atl03-data-downloaded-by-icepyx-contained-no-photon-heights-data/2639/3 "2023-04-06T15:29:44Z")

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How big is your box? A box below a certain size threshold will return no data

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**Author:** ![charis\_chao](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/charis_chao/32/3014_2.png) [@charis\_chao](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/charis_chao)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2024, 8:51am UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/the-atl03-data-downloaded-by-icepyx-contained-no-photon-heights-data/2639/4 "2024-10-22T08:51:40Z")

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Hello,did you find the answer to your problem? I download ATL03 from earthdata uing Custumize, the data also lost heights for some gt groups

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**Author:** ![JessicaS11](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/jessicas11/32/229_2.png) [@JessicaS11](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/JessicaS11)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/the-atl03-data-downloaded-by-icepyx-contained-no-photon-heights-data/2639/5 "2024-10-22T19:26:17Z")

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I suspect that what is happening is that there is not actually any data available for the submitted region. As a result, when customization services are applied (and spatial and temporal subsetting are applied by default in icepyx), no data is returned. Searching for data uses metadata to identify granules that _most likely_ have data in them based on a file-wide bounding box. If the area you’ve requested is small enough, it’s highly possible no photons fall within it, so no data is returned. As a starting point to isolate the issue, I’d suggest checking [OpenAltimetry](https://openaltimetry.earthdatacloud.nasa.gov/data/) for your region of interest to see if there are actually any photons available.