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Snow Melt Onset Over Arctic Sea Ice from SMMR and SSM/I Brightness Temperatures

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Entry ID

NSIDC-0105

Summary

Yearly snow melt onset dates over Arctic sea ice are derived from Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) and Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) brightness temperatures. The introduction of liquid water to snow results in a sharp increase in the emissivity and hence brightness temperature of the snowpack. Snow melt onset is defined as the point in time when microwave brightness temperatures increase sharply due to the presence of liquid water in the snowpack.

Data cover the years 1979 through 2007, and are in a polar stereographic grid at 25 km resolution. Tab-delimited ASCII files and GIF images are accessible via FTP. Several value-added products are also available.

Geographic Coverage

 

Spatial Coordinates:
N: 90°     S: 30°     E: 180°     W: -180°    

Data Set Citation

Dataset Creator: S. Drobot and M. Anderson
Dataset Title: Snow Melt Onset Over Arctic Sea Ice from SMMR and SSM/I Brightness Temperatures
Dataset Release Date: 2001-11-01
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, Colorado USA
Dataset Publisher: NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0105.html

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 1979-01-01
Stop Date: 2007-12-31

Data Resolution

Temporal Resolution: 1 year

Location Keywords

  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION POLAR
  • OCEAN ARCTIC OCEAN

Science Keywords

  • Cryosphere Sea Ice Snow Melt
  • Oceans Sea Ice Snow Melt

Ancillary Keywords

  • Arctic
  • Climate Proxy
  • DAAC
  • DMSP
  • EOSDIS
  • FTP
  • Gridded Data
  • NASA
  • NIMBUS-7
  • NSIDC
  • Passive Microwave Brightness Temperatures
  • Polar
  • Polar Stereographic
  • Remote Sensing
  • Sea Ice
  • SMMR
  • Snow Melt Onset Dates
  • SSM/I
  • Tbs

ISO Topic Category (View Definitions)

  • Climatology/Meteorology/Atmosphere

Platform

  • DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
  • DMSP 5D-2/F11 Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F11
  • DMSP 5D-2/F13 Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F13
  • DMSP 5D-2/F8 Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F8
  • NIMBUS-7
  • SATELLITES

Instrument

  • SMMR Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer
  • SSM/I Special Sensor Microwave/Imager

Project

  • EOSDIS Earth Observing System Data Information System
  • ESIP Earth Science Information Partners Program

Data Set Progress

in work

Data Center

NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/daac/index.html

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC User Services
Phone: 1 303 492-6199
Fax: 1 303 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:

  • National Snow and Ice Data Center
  • CIRES, 449 UCB
  • University of Colorado

City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC User Services
Phone: 1 303 492-6199
Fax: 1 303 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:

  • National Snow and Ice Data Center
  • CIRES, 449 UCB
  • University of Colorado

City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Distribution

Distribution Media: FTP
Distribution Size: 16 - 27 KB
Distribution Format: GIF

Distribution Media: FTP
Distribution Size: 133 - 680 KB
Distribution Format: Binary

Personnel

NSIDC User Services
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone: 1 303 492-6199 x
Fax: 1 303 492-2468 x
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:

  • National Snow and Ice Data Center
  • CIRES, 449 UCB
  • University of Colorado

City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Sheldon Drobot
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:

  • Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research
  • Department of Aerospace Engineering
  • 431 UCB
  • University of Colorado

City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0431

Mark Anderson
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:

  • Meteorology/Climatology Program
  • Dept. of Geosciences
  • University of Nebraska

City: Lincoln
Province or State: NE
Postal Code: 68588-0340

Related URL

VIEW PROJECT HOME PAGE
Sea Ice Data at NSIDC

Reference

Abdalati, W. and K. Steffen. 1997. Snowmelt on the Greenland Ice Sheet as Derived from Passive Microwave Satellite Data. Journal of Climate 10(2):165-175.

Abdalati, W. and K. Steffen. 1995. Passive Microwave-defined Snow Melt Regions on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Geophysical Research Letters 22(7):787-790.

Abdalati, W., K. Steffen, C. Otto and K. Jezek. 1995. Comparison of TBs from SSM/I Instruments on the DMSP F8 and F11 Satellites for Antarctica and the Greenland Ice Sheet. International Journal of Remote Sensing 16:1223-1229.

Anderson, M. 1997. Determination of a Melt Onset Date for Arctic Sea Ice Regio Using Passive Microwave Data. Annals of Glaciology 25:382-387.

Anderson, M. 1987. The Onset of Spring Melt in First-year Ice Regions of the Arctic as Determined from Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer Data for 1979 and 1980. Journal of Geophysical Research 92(C12):13,153-13,163.

Cavalieri, D., C. Parkinson, P. Gloersen, J. Comiso, and H. J. Zwally. 1999. Deriving Long-term Time Series of Sea Ice Cover from Satellite Passive-microwave Multisensor Data Sets. Journal of Geophysical Research 104(C7):15,803-15,814.

Cavalieri, D. 1994. A Microwave Technique for Mapping Thin Sea Ice. Journal of Geophysical Research 99(C6):12,561-12,572.

Drobot, S. and M. Anderson. 2001. Comparison of Interannual Snowmelt Onset Dates with Atmospheric Conditions. Annals of Glaciology 33: 79-84.

Dubach L. and C. Ng. 1988. NSSDC's Compendium of Meteorological Space Programs, Satellites, and Experiments.

Gloersen, P. and F. Barath. 1977. A Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer for Nimbus-G and SeaSat-A. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 2:172-178.

Gloersen, P., W. Campbell, D. Cavalieri, J. Comiso, C. Parkinson, and H. J. Zwally. 1992. Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice, 1978-1987: Satellite Passive-microwave Observations and Analysis. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Program. Washington, D.C.

Gloersen, P. and L. Hardis. 1978. The Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) Experiment, in The Nimbus 7 Users' Guide. C. R. Madrid, editor. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center.

Jezek, K., C. Merry, D. Cavalieri, S., Grace, J. Bedner, D. Wilson, and D. Lampkin. 1991. Comparison Between SMMR and SSM/I Passive Microwave Data Collected over the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Byrd Polar Research Center Technical Report No. 91-03, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 62 pp.

Kramer, H. 1994. Observation of the Earth and Its Environment - Survey of Missions and Sensors, 2nd Edition. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

Kunzi, K., S. Patil, and H. Rott. 1982. Snow-cover Parameters Derived from Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data. IEEE Transactions on Geosciences and Remote Sensing GE-20:57-66.

Livingstone, C., K. Singh, and L. Gray. 1987. Seasonal and Regional Variations of Active/Passive Microwave Signatures of Sea Ice. IEEE Transactions on Geosciences and Remote Sensing GE-25:159-172.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 1978. The Nimbus 7 Users' Guide. C.R. Madrid, editor. Goddard Space Flight Center.

Snyder, J. P. 1982. Map Projections Used by the U.S. Geological Survey. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1532.

Stroeve, J., L. Xiaoming, and J. Maslanik. 1998. An Intercomparison of DMSP F11- and F13-derived Sea Ice Products. Remote Sensing of the Environment 64:132-152.

Swanson, P. and A. Riley. 1980. The Seasat Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR): Radiometric Calibration Algorithm Development and Performance. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering OE-5:116-124.

Metadata Name and Version

Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7

Creation and Review Dates

DIF Creation Date: 2001-11-01
Last DIF Revision Date: 2012-07-18

Metadata Views

DIF Text-Only

Directory Interchange Format (DIF) in plain text

DIF XML

Directory Interchange Format (DIF) in Extensible Markup Language (XML)

FGDC HTML

U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)

ISO HTML

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 19115:2003 Geographic Information Metadata

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