Snow Melt Onset Over Arctic Sea Ice from SMMR and SSM/I Brightness Temperatures  View Catalog Page 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°
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Data Set Citation
Dataset Creator: S. Drobot and M. Anderson
Dataset Title: Arctic Snow Melt Onset Dates from SMMR and SSM/I Brightness Temperatures
Dataset Release Date: 2001-11-01
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, CO USA
Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Data Presentation Form: Table
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: yearly
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
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
National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0105
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-0105
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
Distribution
Distribution Media: ftp
Distribution Size: largest files are 680 KB
Distribution Format: ASCII and GIF
Personnel
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
NSIDC USER SERVICES
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
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
Reference
Abdalati W., K. Steffen, C. Otto and K. Jezek. 1995. Comparison of brightness temperatures 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.R. 1997. Determination of a melt onset date for Arctic sea ice regions using passive microwave data. Annals of Glaciology 25:382-387.
Cavalieri, D.J., C.L. Parkinson, P. Gloersen, J.C. 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.J. 1994. A microwave technique for mapping thin sea ice. Journal of Geophysical Research 99(C6):12,561-12,572.
Drobot, S.D. and M.R. Anderson. 2001. Comparison of interannual snowmelt onset dates with atmospheric conditions. Annals of Glaciology. In press.
Jezek, K.C., 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.
Kunzi, K.F., 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.E., K.P. 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.
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.
Metadata Name and Version
Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7
Creation and Review Dates
DIF Creation Date: 2001-11-08
Last DIF Revision Date: 2002-01-29
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