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<p>We conducted a 750&thinsp;km kinematic GPS survey, referred to as the 88S Traverse, based out of South Pole Station, Antarctica, between December 2017 and January 2018. This ground-based survey was designed to validate spaceborne altimetry and airborne altimetry developed at NASA. The 88S Traverse intersects 20&thinsp;% of the ICESat-2 satellite orbits on a route that has been flown by two different Operation IceBridge airborne laser altimeters: the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM; 26 October 2014) and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Lidar (30 November and 3 December 2017). Here we present an overview of the ground-based GPS data quality and a quantitative assessment of the airborne laser altimetry over a flat section of the ice sheet interior. Results indicate that the GPS data are internally consistent (<span class="inline-formula">1.1±4.1</span>&thinsp;cm). Relative to the ground-based 88S Traverse data, the elevation biases for ATM and the UAF lidar range from <span class="inline-formula">−9.5</span> to 3.6&thinsp;cm, while surface measurement precisions are equal to or better than 14.1&thinsp;cm. These results suggest that the ground-based GPS data and airborne altimetry data are appropriate for the validation of ICESat-2 surface elevation data.</p>