Polar Pathfinder Daily 25 km EASE-Grid Sea Ice Motion Vectors  View Catalog Page Entry ID
NSIDC-0116
Summary
Daily ice motion vectors are computed from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), and International Arctic Buoy Programme (IABP) buoy data. Daily gridded fields combine data from all sensors, from November 1978 through December 2006. Grids extend from 48.4° N to 90° N, and from 53.2° S to 90° S. Mean gridded fields include yearly, monthly, and weekly means, and a mean for the entire time series. Both daily and mean gridded fields are in 2-byte integer format, reprojected to 25 km Northern and Southern Hemisphere EASE-Grids. Browse images of mean fields are available in Portable Network Graphics (PNG) and Enhanced Postscript (EPS) format. Raw ice motion vectors from each sensor are in tab-delimited ASCII text format.
The complete data set is available via FTP. Registration for data is optional, but encouraged; registered users automatically receive e-mail notification of data updates.
Geographic Coverage
Spatial Coordinates:
N: -53.2028°
S: -90°
E: 180°
W: -180°
N: 90°
S: 48.7278°
E: 180°
W: -180°
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Data Set Citation
Dataset Creator: C. Fowler
Dataset Title: Polar Pathfinder Daily 25 km EASE-Grid Sea Ice Motion Vectors
Dataset Release Date: 2003-05-23, updated 2007
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, Colorado USA
Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Version: 1
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0116.html
Temporal Coverage
Start Date: 1978-10-25
Stop Date: 2006-12-31
Data Resolution
Latitude Resolution: 25 km
Longitude Resolution: 25 km
Temporal Resolution: Mean grids are in daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly temporal scales.
Location Keywords
- Continent Antarctica
- Geographic Region Arctic
- Geographic Region Polar
- Ocean Arctic Ocean
Science Keywords
- Cryosphere Sea Ice Sea Ice Motion
- Cryosphere Sea Ice Sea Ice Motion ICE VELOCITY
- Oceans Sea Ice Sea Ice Motion
- Oceans Sea Ice Sea Ice Motion ICE VELOCITY
Ancillary Keywords
- AVHRR
- Buoys
- DAAC
- EOSDIS
- Gridded
- Gridded Data
- Ice Motion
- NASA
- NASA Pathfinder
- NOAA/NASA Pathfinder
- NSIDC
- Passive Microwave
- Passive Microwave Data
- Remote Sensing
- Sea Ice Motion
- SMMR
- SSM/I
- Climatology/Meteorology/Atmosphere
Platform
- BUOYS
- 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
- NOAA-11 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-11
- NOAA-12 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-12
- NOAA-14 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-14
- NOAA-9 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration-9
Instrument
- AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
- DRIFTING BUOYS
- SMMR Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer
- SSM/I Special Sensor Microwave/Imager
Project
- ESIP Earth Science Information Partners Program
- NOAA/NASA PATHFINDER NOAA/NASA Pathfinder Program
Quality
Direct comparisons between the more accurate buoy measurements and vectors derived from passive-microwave data are difficult because of time differences. The SMMR data are composites over two days, and the SSM/I images are composites over a 24-hour period. Each pixel in an image may contain information from more than one orbit. With this problem in mind, Fowler compared vectors derived from passive-microwave imagery with those from buoy data.
For 85-GHz data, he found 74,381 pairs of buoy and SSM/I vectors that were less than 50 km apart. The mean difference in the u component was -0.05 cm/sec with a Root Mean Square (RMS) error of 4.16 cm/sec. The mean difference in the v component was 0.39 cm/sec with an RMS error of 4.23 cm/sec.
For 37-GHz data, the mean difference in the u component was 0.04 cm/sec with a Root Mean Square (RMS) error of 5.05 cm/sec. The mean difference in the v component was 0.74 cm/sec with an RMS error of 5.24 cm/sec.
With AVHRR 5-km imagery, ice motion accuracy is about 2 cm/sec. Fowler compared vectors derived from AVHRR imagery with those from buoy data. He found 26,820 pairs of AVHRR and buoy vectors that were less than 50 km apart. The mean difference in the u component was -0.12 cm/sec with a Root Mean Square (RMS) error of 3.31 cm/sec. The mean difference in the v component was 0.07 cm/sec with an RMS error of 3.29 cm/sec.
It is difficult to assign an error value to a buoy velocity. The position accuracy of the buoys is about 0.5 km. The locations are interpolated to the 6-hour interval times. The accuracy is then dependent upon the initial position error and the interpolation error. It could be assumed that the overall error would be less than 1 cm/sec for the average velocity over 24-hours.
For the gridded data, Fowler found that the mean difference between the interpolated u components and the buoy vectors was 0.1 cm/sec with a Root Mean Square (RMS) error of 3.364 cm/sec. For the v component, the mean was 0.4 cm/sec with an RMS error of 3.39722.
Data Set Progress
COMPLETE
Data Center
National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0116
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-0116
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 Format: Enhanced Postscript
Distribution Media: FTP
Distribution Format: PNG
Distribution Media: FTP
Distribution Size: 50 KB - 782 KB per data file
Distribution Format: binary
Personnel
Chuck Fowler
Role: INVESTIGATOR
Contact Address:
Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0431
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
Cracknell, A. 1997. The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. London: Taylor and Francis.
Emery, W., C. Fowler, and J. Maslanik. 1995. Satellite remote sensing of ice motion, in Oceanographic Applications of Remote Sensing, ed. Motoyoshi Ikeda and Frederic W. Dobson. CRC Press, Boca Raton.
Isaaks, E., and R.M. Srivastava. 1989. An introduction to applied geostatistics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kidwell, K. 1995. NOAA Polar Orbiter Data User's Guide. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NESDIS.
Maslanik, J., C. Fowler, J. Key, T. Scambos, T. Hutchinson, and W. Emery. 1998. AVHRR-based Polar Pathfinder products for modeling applications. Annals of Glaciology 25:388-392
Rosborough, G., D. Baldwin, and W. Emery. 1994. Precise AVHRR image navigation. IEEE Transactions in Geosciences and Remote Sensing 32(3):644-657.
Schweiger, A., C. Fowler, J. Key, J. Maslanik, J. Francis, R. Armstrong, M.J. Brodzik, T. Scambos, T. Haran, M. Ortmeyer, S. Khalsa, D. Rothrock, and R. Weaver. 1999. P-Cube: A multisensor data set for polar climate research. Proceedings on the 5th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography, American Meteorological Society, Dallas, TX, 15-20 Jan., 136-141.
Metadata Name and Version
Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7
Creation and Review Dates
DIF Creation Date: 2003-05-23
Last DIF Revision Date: 2007-07-13
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