IMS Daily Northern Hemisphere Snow and Ice Analysis at 1 km, 4 km, and 24 km Resolutions, Version 1
Data set id:
G02156
DOI: 10.7265/N52R3PMC
This is the most recent version of these data.
Version Summary
Initial release

Overview

This data set provides maps of snow cover and sea ice for the Northern Hemisphere from February 1997 to the present from the United States National Ice Center (USNIC). USNIC analysts produce these using the Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS). Maps are derived from a variety of data products including satellite imagery and in situ data. The data are provided in ASCII text, GeoTIFF, and NetCDF formats in three different resolutions: 1 km, 4 km, and 24 km. Note: The IMS product is considered an operational product; however, USNIC, who creates this product, does not guarantee availability or timely delivery of data via the NIC Web server. NSIDC, as the data archive, does not guarantee availability of this product via the NSIDC Web server. These servers should not be used to support operational observation, forecasting, emergency, or disaster mitigation operations, either public or private. Users with real-time operational needs should visit the USNIC Web site and contact the USNIC Liaison to request access to their operational server.
Parameter(s):
ICE EXTENTSNOW COVER
Platform(s):
AQUA, DMSP, DMSP 5D-3/F17, GOES-10, GOES-11, GOES-13, GOES-9, METEOSAT, MSG, MTSAT-1R, MTSAT-2, NOAA-14, NOAA-15, NOAA-16, NOAA-17, NOAA-18, NOAA-N, RADARSAT-2, SUOMI-NPP, TERRA
Sensor(s):
AMSU-A, ATMS, AVHRR, GOES I-M IMAGER, MODIS, MTSAT 1R Imager, MTSAT 2 Imager, MVIRI, SAR, SEVIRI, SSM/I, SSMIS, VIIRS
Data Format(s):
GIF, NetCDF, GeoTIFF, ASCII
Temporal Coverage:
5 February 1997 to present
Temporal Resolution:
  • 1 day
Spatial Resolution:
  • 24 km
  • 1 km
  • 24 km
  • 1 km
Spatial Coverage:
N:
90
S:
0
E:
180
W:
-180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.

Data Access & Tools

Help Articles

General Questions & FAQs

Yes, one user of IMS Daily Northern Hemisphere Snow and Ice Analysis at 1 km, 4 km, and 24 km Resolutions, Version 1 (G02156) has created and made available a suite of Python tools.

How to Articles

There are two "tricks" to using this dataset (g02156) with GMT: reading the data into a GMT grdfile, and knowing the projection to use when plotting data over the gridded image.
NOAA@NSIDC data recently transitioned to HTTPS. The directory structure has NOT changed, but the beginning of the URL has changed from: ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/DATASETS/ to:
Currently three NOAA@NSIDC data sets are available in NOAA's PolarWatch Data Catalog. Please note that in the catalog the Climate Data Record (CDR) data sets are split up into Antarctic and Arctic data sets:
This article describes the process for importing IMS ASCII data, in 1, 4, and 24km resolutions into ArcGIS using ArcMap v10.5.
If you need to reproject the IMS 1 km or 4 km GeoTIFFs to geographic latitude/longitude, we recommend using the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL). Instructions for downloading and installing it can be found here: