Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid Weekly Snow Cover and Sea Ice Extent Version 3

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Entry ID

NSIDC-0046

Summary

The Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid Weekly Snow Cover and Sea Ice Extent Version 3 product and Version 3.1 update combine snow cover and sea ice extent at weekly intervals from 23 October 1978 through 24 June 2007, and snow cover alone from 3 October 1966 through 23 October 1978. (Sea ice data were not available prior to 23 October 1978.) The data set is the first representation of combined snow and sea ice measurements derived from satellite observations for the period of record. Designed to facilitate study of Northern Hemisphere seasonal fluctuations of snow cover and sea ice extent, the data set also includes monthly climatologies describing average extent, probability of occurrence, and variance. Data are provided in the Northern Hemisphere 25 km equal-area grid (NSIDC Nl EASE-Grid).

Snow cover extent is based on the digital NOAA-NESDIS Weekly Northern Hemisphere Snow Charts, revised by D. Robinson (Rutgers University) and regridded to the EASE-Grid. The original NOAA-NESDIS weekly snow charts are derived from the manual interpretation of AVHRR, GOES, and other visible-band satellite data. Sea ice extent is regridded to EASE-Grid from Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I Passive Microwave Data. Both NOAA and NASA provided funding for the production of this data set.

Data Set Citation

Dataset Creator: Richard Armstrong, Mary Jo Brodzik
Dataset Title: Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid Weekly Snow Cover and Sea Ice Extent Version 3
Dataset Release Date: 2005-01-01
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, CO USA
Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Version: 3
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0046.html

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 1966-10-03
Stop Date: 2007-06-24

Start Date: 1978-10-23
Stop Date: 2007-06-24

Data Resolution

Latitude Resolution: 25 km
Longitude Resolution: 25 km
Temporal Resolution: weekly

Location Keywords

• Geographic Region Northern Hemisphere

Science Keywords

• Cryosphere Sea Ice Ice Extent
• Cryosphere Snow/Ice Snow Cover
• Oceans Sea Ice Ice Extent
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Snow/Ice Snow Cover

Ancillary Keywords

• Arctic
• DAAC
• EOSDIS
• Global
• Global Change
• Gridded Data
• Ice
• NASA
• Northern Hemisphere
• NSIDC
• Remote Sensing
• Sea Ice
• Sea Ice Extent
• SMMR
• Snow
• Snow Cover
• Snow Extent
• SSM/I

ISO Topic Category (View Definitions)

• Climatology/Meteorology/Atmosphere
• Oceans

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
• GOES NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites
• GOES-7 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 7
• NIMBUS-7

Instrument

• AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
• SMMR Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer
• SSM/I Special Sensor Microwave/Imager

Project

• NOAA/NASA PATHFINDER NOAA/NASA Pathfinder Program

Quality

NSIDC observed and manually inspected every file in this data set, and performed spot checks against the original hand-drawn NOAA/NESDIS snow charts and the original sea ice data.

Please see the Quality Control Summary for more information about quality control procedures at NSIDC.

Data Set Progress

IN WORK

Data Center

National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0046

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

NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/daac/index.html
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0046

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC DAAC 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

NSIDC National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/noaa/
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0046

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC NOAA 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 Format: Flat binary (1-byte unsigned integer)

Personnel

Richard Armstrong
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Phone: +1 (303)-492-6199
Fax: +1 (303)-492-2468
Email: rlax@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: Colorado
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Mary J. Brodzik
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Email: brodzik@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

NSIDC DAAC USER SERVICES
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone: +1 (303)-492-6199
Fax: +1 (303)-492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
User Services
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449

Related URL

GET SERVICE > ACCESS MAP VIEWER
Access online browse animations for this data set.

Reference

Brodzik, M.J. 1997. EASE-Grid: A Versatile Set of Equal-Area Projections and Grids. Boulder, CO, USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Cavalieri, D. J., J. Crawford, M. Drinkwater, W. J. Emery, D. T. Eppler, L. D. Farmer, M. Goodberlet, R. Jentz, A. Milman, C. Morris, R. Onstott, A. Schweiger, R. Shuchman, K. Steffen, C. T. Swift, C. Wackerman, and R. L. Weaver. 1992. NASA sea ice validation program for the DMSP SSM/I: final report. NASA Technical Memorandum 104559. 126 pp.

Cavalieri, D. J., P. Gloersen, and W. J. Campbell. 1984. Determination of sea ice parameters with the NIMBUS-7 SMMR. Journal of Geophysical Research 89(D4):5355-5369.

Dewey, K. F. and R. Heim, Jr. 1981. Satellite observations of variations in Northern Hemisphere seasonal snow cover. NOAA Technical Report NESS 87. 83 pp.

Dewey, K. F. and R. Heim Jr. 1982. New data base: a digital archive of Northern Hemisphere snow cover. Presented at Western Snow Conference, April 19-23. Reno, NV, 9 pp.

Gloersen, P., W. J. Campbell, D. J. Cavalieri, J. C. Comiso, C. L. Parkinson, and H. J. Zwally. 1992. Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice, 1978 - 1987: Satellite Passive Microwave Observations and Analysis. NASA SP-511.

Johannessen, O. M., M. W. Miles, E. Bjørgo. 1996. Global sea ice monitoring from microwave satellites. In IGARSS '96. 1996 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Remote Sensing for a Sustainable Future, ed. T. I. Stein, Vol. II: 932-934. Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

Knowles, K. 1993. Points, Pixels, Grids, and Cells: A Mapping and Gridding Primer. Boulder, CO, USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Robinson, D.A., A. Bamzai, and B. Ramsay. 2001. Evaluating Northern Hemisphere snow cover during the satellite era: variations in extent and associations with temperature. Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on Global Change and Climate Variations. Albuquerque, NM, American Meteorological Society, 36-39.

Robinson, D.A. 2000. Weekly Northern Hemisphere snow maps: 1966-1999. 12th Conference on Applied Climatology, Asheville, NC, American Meteorological Society, 12-15.

Robinson, D.A. and A. Frei. 2000. Seasonal variability of northern hemisphere snow extent using visible satellite data. Professional Geographer 51: 307-314.

Robinson, D.A., J.D. Tarpley and B. Ramsay. 1999. Transition from NOAA weekly to daily hemispheric snow charts. Proceedings of the 10th Symposium on Global Change, Dallas, TX, American Meteorological Society, 487-490.

Robinson, D. A., K. F. Dewey, and R. R. Heim, Jr. 1993. Global snow cover monitoring: an update. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 74:1689-1696.

Swift, C. T. and D. J. Cavalieri. 1985. Passive microwave remote sensing for sea ice research. EOS 66(49):1210-1212.

Metadata Name and Version

Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7

Creation and Review Dates

Last DIF Revision Date: 2008-09-27

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