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2010

21 December 2010

A Better Daily Ice Edge: MASIE-NH Released

NSIDC and the U.S. National Ice Center (NIC) are pleased to announce a new daily sea ice analysis product: The Multisensor Analyzed Sea Ice Extent - Northern Hemisphere (MASIE-NH). NIC analysts produce an Arctic-wide sea ice and snow extent map drawing on a multitude of data sources. The gridded 4-km product locates the ice edge with much greater accuracy than daily products based on single-source satellite data. Working with NIC, NSIDC developed MASIE-NH to meet a need for a more accurate daily product that is easy to use like the Sea Ice Index.

The Sea Ice Index has both a monthly and a daily product. We recommend using the monthly product when a long time series and consistent processing are important as they would be for climatological studies. However, if it is important to know where the ice is recently, on a daily time scale, we recommend using the MASIE product.

MASIE lets you view and download:

The MASIE-NH products are distributed in a number of formats including ASCII text, GeoTIFF, PNG, shapefiles, and Google Earth files and are available for the previous four weeks (28 days). MASIE was developed with support from NIC and the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office. Distribution by NOAA@NSIDC is made possible by support from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). For more information on this new product and to download data, see the MASIE-NH Web site.

13 December 2010

December 13 2010: IICWG Meeting Presentations Available

Documents and presentations from the 11th meeting of the International Ice Charting Working Group (IICWG) are available from the IICWG Meetings Web page. To view documents, click on the Meeting Documents link under the Eleventh IICWG Meeting heading; and to view the presentations, click on the Meeting Presentations link. NOAA@NSIDC hosts the IICWG Web site in order to strengthen ties between operations and research.

13 December 2010

NASA IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery Data for Greenland 2010 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery data for Greenland 2010 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery catalog page.

13 December 2010

NASA IceBridge DMS L1B Data for Greenland 2010 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge DMS L1B Geolocated and Orthorectified Images data for Greenland 2010 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge DMS L1B Geolocated and Orthorectified Images catalog page.

13 December 2010

xNASA IceBridge CAMBOT L1B Geolocated Images for Greenland 2010 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge CAMBOT L1B Geolocated Images for Greenland 2010 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge CAMBOT L1B Geolocated Images catalog page.

07 December 2010

NASA IceBridge Atmospheric Chemistry L1B Data Now Available via NSIDC

NASA IceBridge Atmospheric Chemistry L1B Data for Antarctica 2009 are now available via NSIDC as brokered data from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL). For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge Atmospheric Chemistry L1B Data catalog page.

07 December 2010

New Antarctic data available from NSIDC AGDC

The NSIDC Antarctic Glaciological Data Center (AGDC) has released the data set, Radar Studies of Internal Stratigraphy and Bed Topography along the US ITASE-II Traverse (NSIDC-0475). The data set contain ice penetrating radar data from the US-International Trans-Antarctic Science Expedition (ITASE) Traverse, from Taylor Dome to South Pole recorded by the St. Olaf College deep radar system.

07 December 2010

NASA IceBridge UAF Lidar Scanner L1B Geolocated Surface Elevation Triplets data for Alaska 2010 are now available at NSIDC.

For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge UAF Lidar Scanner L1B Geolocated Surface Elevation Triplets catalog page.

10 November 2010

NASA Preliminary IceBridge Ku-Band Radar L1B Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles Data Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge preliminary Ku-Band Radar L1B Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles data for Greenland 2010 are now available from NSIDC. The Greenland 2010 data currently contain preliminary Ku-Band radar data for the IceBridge CryoSat-2 underflight on 20 April 2010. The preliminary data will be replaced with the fully processed data in the near future. For documentation, and to access the data, see the catalog page for IceBridge Ku-Band Radar L1B Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles.

10 November 2010

NASA IceBridge UAF Lidar Profiler L1B Geolocated Surface Elevation Triplets Data Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge UAF Lidar Profiler L1B Geolocated Surface Elevation Triplets data for Alaska 2009 are now available at NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge UAF Lidar Profiler L1B Geolocated Surface Elevation Triplets catalog page.

02 November 2010

NOAA Team Member Gave Talk at GSA

NOAA@NSIDC project manager Lisa Ballagh gave an invited talk at the Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in Denver. The talk was titled Maps, Maps And More Maps: Three Approaches To Reach The Masses (.pptx, 5.5 MB) and described how Google Earth, Web Map Services, and GeoRSS can enhance a collection by depicting news on maps, visualizations on maps, and interoperability via maps. Coauthors were John Cartwright, with NOAA NGDC, and Allaina Wallace, NSIDC archivist.

01 November 2010

The Google Earth Blog featured the Sea ice Index

The NSIDC Sea Ice Index was featured in Google Earth's Blog: The Amazing Things About Google Earth. The blog post titled, "Sea Ice Extent Animation updated for 2010", was posted on October 12, 2010 and details the 2010 update NSIDC made to their Sea Ice Index Google Earth file. To read the blog, visit Google Earth's Blog site.

28 October 2010

Update to AGDC Data Set: ICESat-Derived Grounding Zone for Antarctic Ice Shelves

The AGDC data set, ICESat-Derived Grounding Zone for Antarctic Ice Shelves, has been updated because of an interpolation problem. If you have questions, please contact NSIDC User Services at nsidc@nsidc.org or +1 303.492.6199.

27 October 2010

New RSS Data Feed Available for AMSR-E and MODIS Products

Data users can now subscribe to receive new AMSR-E and MODIS data via an RSS data feed as soon as they are ingested at NSIDC. Each RSS feed entry includes a direct link to the data and corresponding metadata within the NSIDC FTP site. For more information about the NSIDC data products currently served by the RSS data feed, and to subscribe, please refer to the following product summary pages:

AMSR-E/Aqua L2B Global Swath Ocean Products derived from Wentz Algorithm
MODIS/Aqua Sea Ice Extent 5-Min L2 Swath 1km, Version 5

The RSS data feed serving these products was developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) under the NASA JPL Datacasting project. For more information about data casting, including feed reader and publisher guides, visit the JPL Datacasting: Earth Science Meets RSS Web site.

26 October 2010

NOAA@NSIDC Team Lead Gave Talk at IICWG Meeting XI

At the IICWG Science Day on October 26, NOAA@NSIDC lead Florence Fetterer spoke on NOAA's Arctic Sea Ice Forecasting Activities, Research & Priorities with coauthors Janet Intrieri (NOAA ESRL) and John Calder (NOAA Arctic Research Program). The talk aimed to contribute to discussion on focusing research to help meet the growing demands placed on the ice services.

25 October 2010

Updated L2 AMSR-E Data Released, Available Sooner

Updated Level-2 Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) data products were released by the AMSR-E Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) on 20 October 2010. These products were updated to add a new product maturity code, R, for near-real-time data. The SIPS included the new product maturity code for the production and distribution of near-real-time AMSR-E data via the NASA Land Atmosphere Near-real-time Capability (LANCE) data system. As no science algorithm changes were made, past data will not be reprocessed. The following products have been updated, and the latest algorithm version is listed:

AMSR-E/Aqua L2B Surface Soil Moisture, Ancillary Parms, & QC EASE-Grids
Algorithm: Validated 10 - Stage 1

AMSR-E/Aqua L2B Global Swath Rain Rate/Type GSFC Profiling Algorithm
Algorithm: Validated 11 - Stage 2

AMSR-E/Aqua L2B Global Swath Ocean Products derived from Wentz Algorithm
Algorithm: Validated 07 - Stage 2

NSIDC is also pleased to announce that, with this update, AMSR-E Level-2 products will now be available with latency reduced from five days to 20 hours from the time of observation. Quality Assurance files (QA), Production History (PH), and browse imagery are also available for ordering. For details regarding AMSR-E data versions and ordering options, please refer to the AMSR-E/Aqua Data Web site.

New Delivered Algorithm Packages (DAPs) are available for the updated products. If you are interested in receiving a DAP or have any other questions, please contact NSIDC User Services.

25 October 2010

IICWG News Release

The International Ice Chart Working Group (IICWG) concluded a successful 11th meeting the week of October 18 in Washington DC. The group discussed ice modelling and forecasting; and topics for the meeting centered around short term ice forecasting research, forecasting compressive forces in pack ice, and identifying and tracking ice object movement to name a few. After the meeting, the IICWG warned "that sea ice and icebergs continue to present significant hazards to navigation and other maritime activities. It strongly supports the continued development of the International Maritime Organization's Polar Code for improved safety of ship operations." To read the full news release, see the following: National Ice Services Warn of Continuing Hazards to Navigation in the Polar Seas (PDF, 122 KB). For additional information about the IICWG, visit the International Ice Chart Working Group Web site.

14 October 2010

MEaSUREs Global Record of Daily Landscape Freeze/Thaw Status, Version 01 Data Set Released

NSIDC has released MEaSUREs Global Record of Daily Landscape Freeze/Thaw Status, Version 01 (NSIDC-0477). This data set provides a global record of daily freeze/thaw status from 1988 to 2007. The data set is based on data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I).

14 October 2010

New Data from NSIDC AGDC

The NSIDC Antarctic Glaciological Data Center (AGDC) has released Borehole Optical Stratigraphy Modeling, Antarctica (NSIDC-0468). The data set consists of scripts and code designed for modeling the properties of boreholes in polar ice sheets, under a range of variations in the borehole geometry, firn layering, and camera pointing and position.

13 October 2010

MEaSUREs Greenland Ice Sheet Velocity Map from InSAR Data Released

NSIDC has released MEaSUREs Greenland Ice Sheet Velocity Map from InSAR Data (NSIDC-0478). This data set, part of the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program, provides velocity data for the Greenland Ice Sheet. Data are currently available for the 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 boreal summers.

07 October 2010

Greenland 2010 NASA IceBridge NSERC L1B Geolocated Meteorologic and Surface Temperature Data Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge NSERC L1B Geolocated Meteorologic and Surface Temperature data for Greenland 2010 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge NSERC L1B Geolocated Meteorologic and Surface Temperature Data catalog page.

05 October 2010

Power Outage at Goddard Causes MODIS Data Loss

Due to a power outage at the Goddard Space Flight Facility on 22 September 2010, there were satellite data losses for the MODIS/Terra and MODIS/Aqua sea ice and snow products during the following time periods:

Attempts to recover the data were unsuccessful.

04 October 2010

Preliminary Level-2 AMSR-E Data to be Discontinued, Standard Level-2 AMSR-E Data Available Sooner

Preliminary Level-2 Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) data will be discontinued on 18 October 2010. Beginning on this date, the latency of standard Level-2 AMSR-E science products will be reduced from five days to 20 hours from the time of observation. This reduction will make the standard Level-2 AMSR-E science product available to users with approximately the same latency that the preliminary Level-2 product currently provides. In addition, NSIDC will continue to distribute preliminary Level-3 AMSR-E data.

Affected Level-2 AMSR-E products include:
AMSR-E/Aqua L2A Global Swath Spatially-Resampled Brightness Temperatures (Tb)
AMSR-E/Aqua L2B Surface Soil Moisture, Ancillary Parms, & QC EASE-Grids
AMSR-E/Aqua L2B Global Swath Rain Rate/Type GSFC Profiling Algorithm
AMSR-E/Aqua L2B Global Swath Ocean Products derived from Wentz Algorithm

Preliminary Level-2 AMSR-E data users will need to select a new data stream depending on their application or research requirements. Users who require research-quality products can use the standard Level-2 AMSR-E science products distributed at NSIDC, which can be downloaded directly from the NSIDC Data Pool.

Users who require AMSR-E data sooner than the 20-hour latency offered by the standard science product can now access near-real-time AMSR-E data distributed at NASA via the Land Atmosphere Near-real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) data system. Near-real-time Level-2 AMSR-E data are available through LANCE with a latency of three hours from the time of observation. For more information and to register for near-real-time data, please visit the LANCE AMSR-E Web site.

If you have questions, please contact NSIDC User Services.

24 September 2010

New DataViewer Tool for NSIDC Passive Microwave Data Sets

Interactive Data Language (IDL) expert, David Fanning, has created a new tool for NSIDC, called the NSIDC DataViewer, that allows data users to conveniently view, display, and manipulate satellite images in a user-defined grid. The tool can be used with a variety of NSIDC passive microwave data sets ranging from brightness temperatures to sea ice motion vectors, and in three different projections, including Polar Stereographic, EASE-Grid, and Quarter-Degree.

Up to 64 images can be displayed simultaneously in the DataViewer resizeable graphics window, allowing data users to page through a series of images. Images can then be scaled and manipulated either individually or as a group. By moving the cursor over an image, a data user can obtain the latitude and longitude coordinates as well as the image value at the cursor location. After an image or series of images is manipulated, the contents of the graphics window(s) can be saved in a variety of image formats, including PostScript, PNG, JPEG, and TIFF.

The NSIDC DataViewer can be run in IDL with an IDL license, via the freely distributed IDL Virtual Machine, or as a run-time application. The NSIDC DataViewer is available via FTP in both Windows- and UNIX-compatible versions: dataviewer.zip and dataviewer.tar.gz, respectively.

22 September 2010

NASA Pre-IceBridge ATM L2 Icessn Elevation, Slope, and Roughness Data Now Available at NSIDC

NASA Pre-IceBridge ATM L2 Icessn Elevation, Slope, and Roughness data for Arctic, Greenland, and Antarctic areas are now available from NSIDC for periodic campaigns from June 1993 to August 2008. For documentation, and to access the data, see the Pre-IceBridge ATM L2 Icessn Elevation, Slope, and Roughness catalog page.

15 September 2010

NASA IceBridge Sander Air GRAV Data for Greenland 2010 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge Sander Air GRAV Data for Greenland 2010 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge Sander Air GRAV L1B Geolocated Free Air Gravity Anomalies catalog page.

13 September 2010

NASA IceBridge Snow Radar Data for 20 April 2010 CryoSat-2 Underflight Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge Snow Radar Greenland data for the 20 April 2010 CryoSat-2 underflight are now available from NSIDC. Due to the interest in the CryoSat-2 underflight, data for 20 April 2010 are provided in advance of the full Greenland 2010 Snow Radar Level-1B data set. For documentation, and to access the data, see the catalog page for IceBridge Snow Radar L1B Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles.

09 September 2010

NASA IceBridge ATM Icessn, ATM Qfit, and CAMBOT Data for 2009 Antarctica Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge ATM L2 Icessn Elevation, Slope, and Roughness data, ATM L1B Qfit Elevation and Return Strength data, and CAMBOT L1B Geolocated Images are now available for 2009 Antarctica from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access the data, see the IceBridge ATM L2 Icessn Elevation, Slope, and Roughness catalog page, the IceBridge ATM L1B Qfit Elevation and Return Strength catalog page, and the IceBridge CAMBOT L1B Geolocated Images catalog page.

09 September 2010

Barnes Ice Cap South Dome Data Set Published

NOAA@NSIDC has published a new data set that provides measurements of mass balance, surface velocity, and surface elevation of the South Dome of Barnes Ice Cap. The data set, Barnes Ice Cap South Dome Trilateration Net Survey Data 1970-1984, contains survey measurements of a network of 43 stakes along a 10 km flow line on the northeast flank of the south dome of the Barnes Ice Cap. For more information and to access the data, see the Barnes Ice Cap South Dome Trilateration Net Survey Data 1970-1984 Web page.

03 September 2010

Updated Level-3 AMSR-E Products Released

Updated Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) Level-3 data products were released by the AMSR-E Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) on 27 August 2010. These products were updated to add a new product maturity code, R, for near-real-time data. The SIPS included the new product maturity code to prepare for the upcoming production and distribution of near-real-time AMSR-E data via the Land Atmosphere Near-real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) data system. As no science algorithm changes were made, past data will not be reprocessed. Updated products, and the latest algorithm versions, are as follows:

Land

AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 Surface Soil Moisture, Interpretive Params, & QC EASE-Grids (AE_Land3)
Algorithm: Validated 7 - Stage 1

Ocean

AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids (AE_DyOcn)
AMSR-E/Aqua Weekly L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids (AE_WkOcn)
AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids (AE_MoOcn)
Algorithm: Validated 5 - Stage 2

Snow

AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 Global Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grids (AE_DySno)
AMSR-E/Aqua 5-Day L3 Global Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grids (AE_5DSno)
AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly L3 Global Snow Water Equivalent EASE-Grids (AE_MoSno)
Algorithm: Validated 10 - Stage 1


In addition, Quality Assurance (QA) files, Production History (PH) files, and browse imagery are now available for ordering. For more information regarding AMSR-E data versions and ordering options, please refer to the AMSR-E Data Web site.

New Delivered Algorithm Packages (DAPs) are also available for the updated products. If you are interested in receiving a DAP or have additional questions, please contact NSIDC User Services.

03 September 2010

AMSR-E Sea Ice Products Updated, Concentration Difference Corrected

New versions of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) Level-3 sea ice data products were released by the AMSR-E Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) on 27 August 2010. These products were updated to Validated 13, Stage 1 to add a new product maturity code, R, for near-real-time data. The new product maturity code was included to accommodate the production of near-real-time AMSR-E data by the SIPS through the Land Atmosphere Near-real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) in the near future.

The update to the AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice product also corrects an issue in the previous production code, V12, that introduced a new value in the sea ice concentration difference field when data from the Bootstrap Basic Algorithm (BBA) were missing. The value was -310; the standard value when BBA data are missing is -200 to -300. Past data will not be reprocessed, so users should be aware of this issue when working with data prior to 27 August 2010.

In addition to updated products, the quality assurance (QA) files, production history (PH) files, and browse imagery are now available for ordering. Further details regarding AMSR-E data versions and ordering options are available on the AMSR-E Data Web site.

New Delivered Algorithm Packages (DAPs) are also available for the updated products. If you are interested in receiving a DAP or have any other questions, please contact NSIDC User Services.

31 August 2010

NSIDC Welcomes Data Users to the NASA A-Train Symposium

Representatives from NSIDC will be attending the 2010 International Symposium on the A-Train Satellite Constellation in New Orleans, Louisiana USA from 25-28 October 2010. The symposium will include a user workshop on 25 October, which will focus on instrument data products and their use, followed by the three-day symposium to be held 26-28 October. Registration is free, and the deadline to submit an abstract is 10 September 2010. For further details, please visit the NASA A-Train Symposium Web page.

26 August 2010

BNASA IceBridge Preliminary ATM Icessn and ATM Qfit Data for Greenland 2010 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge preliminary ATM Icessn and ATM Qfit data for Greenland 2010 are now available from NSIDC. The Greenland 2010 data currently contain preliminary ATM Level-2 Icessn and ATM Level-1B Qfit data for the IceBridge CryoSat-2 underflight on 20 April 2010. The preliminary data will be replaced with the fully processed data in the near future. For documentation, and to access the data, see the catalog pages for IceBridge ATM L2 Icessn Elevation, Slope, and Roughness and IceBridge ATM L1B Qfit Elevation and Return Strength.

26 August 2010

Borehole Inventory Data Set Published

NOAA@NISDC has published a new data set that is an inventory of a network of boreholes equipped for long-term permafrost temperature observations. The data set, IPA-IPY Thermal State of Permafrost (TSP) Snapshot Borehole Inventory, Version 1.0, consists of an inventory of boreholes established during the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007 - 2009 by the International Permafrost Association (IPA) under the Thermal State of Permafrost (TSP) Project #50. The TSP project goals included the acquisition of standardized temperature measurements (snapshots) from all permafrost regions on Earth, preparation of a global data set, and development of maps of contemporary permafrost temperatures. For more information and to access the inventory, see the IPA-IPY Thermal State of Permafrost (TSP) Snapshot Borehole Inventory, Version 1.0 Web page.

26 August 2010

NSIDC DAAC Participates in CFI Web-based Survey

In early September 2010, all registered NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) data users will receive an email invitation from the Claes Fornell International (CFI) Group on behalf of NASA to participate in a Web-based survey about the quality and utility of NSIDC DAAC products and services. It takes approximately ten minutes to complete this anonymous questionnaire, and optional comment fields are provided to address your specific concerns. The NSIDC DAAC is one of twelve NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) data centers to be evaluated by this survey.

Thank you in advance. Your feedback will help us better serve our data user community.

If you would like to participate but are not a registered user of NSIDC DAAC data products, please contact the CFI Group.

06 August 2010

Arctic Marine Transportation Program Data Set Published

NOAA@NSIDC has published a new data set relevant to developing year-round transportation capabilities in the Arctic Ocean: Arctic Marine Transportation Program 1979-1986. The US Maritime Administration sponsored this multi-year program to define environmental conditions in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas; to obtain data to improve design criteria for ice-worthy ships and offshore structures; and to demonstrate the operational feasibility of commercial icebreaking ships along possible future Arctic marine routes. This data set consists of PDF documents of Arctic Marine Transportation Reports. For more information and to access the reports, see the Arctic Marine Transportation Program 1979-1986 Web page.

04 August 2010

NASA IceBridge NSERC L1B Meteorologic Data for Antarctica 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge NSERC L1B Geolocated Meteorologic and Surface Temperature Data for Antarctica 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access the data, see the IceBridge NSERC L1B Geolocated Meteorologic and Surface Temperature Data catalog page.

03 August 2010

NASA IceBridge ATM POS/AV Data for Antarctica and Greenland 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge ATM POS/AV L1B Corrected ATM GPS Track and INS Data for Antarctica and Greenland 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access the data, see the IceBridge ATM POS/AV L1B Corrected ATM GPS Track and INS Data catalog page.

21 July 2010

NASA IceBridge Snow Radar L1B Data for Antarctica and Greenland 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge Snow Radar L1B Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles data for Antarctica and Greenland 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access the data, see the IceBridge Snow Radar L1B Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles catalog page.

21 July 2010

Science Ice Exercise (SCICEX) Data Inventory Now Available

NOAA@NSIDC has developed and will maintain a data inventory for the Science Ice Exercise (SCICEX) program — a US Navy Submarine Arctic Science Program that utilizes nuclear submarines to collect scientific data about the Arctic Ocean. To view the data inventory, see the SCICEX Data section of the NSIDC SCICEX Web site. The site acts as a collection point for past data acquired as part of the SCICEX program. The site also provides background information on the SCICEX program as well as links to SCICEX data, related publications and Web sites, and a link to the newly released SCICEX Phase II Science Plan Part I. NSIDC is actively looking for past SCICEX data. If you have data to contribute, please contact NSIDC SCICEX project manager, Ann Windnagel.

21 July 2010

NASA IceBridge DMS L0 Data for Antarctica 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery data for Antarctica 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery catalog page.

20 July 2010

NASA IceBridge DMS L1B Data for Antarctica 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge DMS L1B Geolocated and Orthorectified Images data for Antarctica 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge DMS L1B Geolocated and Orthorectified Images catalog page.

NASA IceBridge MCoRDS L2 Data for Antarctica 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge MCoRDS L2 Picked Ice and Bed Surfaces and Ice Thickness data for Antarctica 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the MCoRDS L2 Picked Ice and Bed Surfaces and Ice Thickness catalog page.

20 July 2010

DMSP SSM/I Pathfinder Daily EASE-Grid Brightness Temperature Data Set Updated

The DMSP SSM/I Pathfinder Daily EASE-Grid Brightness Temperatures data set has been updated to include data from 01 July 2008 through 29 April 2009. This update includes algorithm changes in the DMSP F-13 input data from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS), NSIDC's source for gridded brightness temperature data. For intercomparison details and more information, refer to the Data Source Version Change section of the data set guide document.

Processing updates for this data set beyond 29 April 2009, however, have been temporarily suspended due to the failure of the DMSP F-13 satellite. NSIDC is working with RSS to acquire data from the DMSP F-17 satellite. Registered data users will be notified when we have received and processed the F-17 data.

Please contact NSIDC User Services with any questions you may have.

08 July 2010

NASA IceBridge CAMBOT L1B Data for Greenland 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge CAMBOT L1B Geolocated and Orthorectified Images for Greenland 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge CAMBOT L1B Geolocated and Orthorectified Images catalog page.

28 June 2010

NASA IceBridge PARIS L2 Ice Thickness Data for Greenland 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge PARIS L2 Ice Thickness data for Greenland 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge PARIS L2 Ice Thickness catalog page.

28 June 2010

NASA IceBridge Sander Air GRAV Data for Antarctica 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge Sander Air GRAV Data for Antarctica 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge Sander Air GRAV L1B Geolocated Anomalies catalog page.

25 June 2010

NASA IceBridge LVIS Level 2 Data for Greenland 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge LVIS Level 2 data for Greenland 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge LVIS L2 Geolocated Surface Elevation Product catalog page.

17 June 2010

NASA IceBridge ATM Qfit Data for Greenland 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge ATM Qfit elevation data for Greenland 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge ATM L1B Qfit Elevation and Return Strength catalog page.

02 June 2010

NASA IceBridge ATM ICESSN Data for Greenland 2009 Now Available at NSIDC

NASA IceBridge Airborne Topographic Mapper Level 2 (ILATM2) ICESSN data for Greenland 2009 are now available from NSIDC. For documentation, and to access data, see the IceBridge ATM L2 ICESSN catalog page.

20 May 2010

AMSR-E Level-3 Ocean Products Updated to V04

AMSR-E Level-3 ocean products have been updated to Validated 4 (V04-Stage 1). The new V04 algorithm incorporates measures to further reduce Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), and the products now include an RFI angle grid as a parameter.

AMSR-E Level-3 ocean products include:

AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids
AMSR-E/Aqua Weekly L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids
AMSR-E/Aqua Monthly L3 Global Ascending/Descending .25x.25 deg Ocean Grids

NSIDC encourages data users to always work with the latest data (indicated by the highest version number) available for a given date. The AMSR-E Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) is currently reprocessing data from the start of the AMSR-E mission, 19 June 2002, through 28 April 2010. NSIDC will notify users when reprocessing is complete.

More information regarding the updated algorithm is provided on the Data Versions for V002 Web page. A new Delivered Algorithm Package (DAP) is also available for these products by contacting NSIDC User Services. For information about AMSR-E products at NSIDC, please see the AMSR-E/Aqua Data Web site.

13 May 2010

500 Photographs Added to the NSIDC Glacier Photograph Collection

The NOAA@NSIDC team has just added 500 glacier photographs to the NSIDC Glacier Photograph Collection that were taken from space. These photographs were taken by astronauts stationed on the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Endeavor between 1994 and the beginning of 2010. The photos were collected in collaboration with The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth project. The goal is to make these photos more widely available and discoverable. To see the new photos, go to the Glacier Photograph Collection Search & Order Interface and search for International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavor in the Photographer Name list.

11 May 2010

Arctic Marine Transportation Program Data Set Published

The NOAA@NSIDC team has just implemented a new feature for the Glacier Photograph Collection Search & Order Interface. Now, when you pick up your high-resolution photo orders from the FTP site, a metadata file in ASCII text format (.txt) is provided with each photograph. Previously, the metadata had to be downloaded separately from the Glacier Photograph Collection Web site. This new process alleviates that step and streamlines the glacier photo order procedure. The metadata file includes such information as glacier name, location, photographer, and a data citation. To explore this new feature, see the Glacier Photograph Collection Search & Order Interface.

27 April 2010

AMSR-E/Aqua Brightness Temperatures Updated

Both the AMSR-E/Aqua Daily EASE-Grid Brightness Temperatures and AMSR-E/Aqua Daily Global Quarter-Degree Gridded Brightness Temperatures data sets have been updated. This quarterly update extends the time series of both data sets through 31 March 2010. This includes data in all three EASE-Grid projections (north, south, and global) as well as global quarter-degree latitude-longitude gridded data.

22 April 2010

IceBridge Mission Updates via Twitter

NASA provides IceBridge mission updates via Twitter. The updates include timely messages on a variety of topics, such as flights, weather, mapping, and recently acquired images. See NASA IceBridge Twitter to sign up.

21 April 2010

Subscribe to the NSIDC RSS for the Latest News on NASA's IceBridge Data

IceBridge Data News is now available from the NSIDC Data News RSS. The NSIDC Data News RSS feed provides news on new NSIDC data products, product updates, and other data announcements. News about IceBridge data is now included in the news feed.

21 April 2010

Instrument Data Summaries and Campaign Data Summaries

The IceBridge Data Web site now includes the Instrument Data Summaries page and the Campaign Data Summaries page. The Instrument Data Summaries page lists Operation Ice Bridge instruments with data provider contact information. Links are provided to available data servers.

The Campaign Data Summaries page lists IceBridge data collected by campaign, including date, flight number, location and instruments. Also included are links to Operation Ice Bridge flight documents.

20 April 2010

NOAA Data Sets Featured in TakePart.com Article

The NOAA@NSIDC team stewards several data sets that originated with the defense and intelligence services. These data were featured in the TakePart.com article, "Global Warming: The Military's Other Enemy." NOAA@NSIDC Program Manager, Florence Fetterer, and NSIDC Scientist, Walt Meier, were interviewed for the article and noted the importance of these data to climate research.

15 April 2010

New Look for NOAA@NSIDC Web Site

NOAA@NISDC's Web site has been redesigned. The new site has a cleaner look and easier navigation. The site features a scrolling image slider highlighting some of NOAA@NSIDC's most popular data products. Visit the site at http://nsidc.org/noaa/index.html.


02 April 2010

V12-Stage 1 AMSR-E Level-3 Sea Ice Products Now Available

NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of Validated 12 (V12-Stage 1) AMSR-E Level-3 sea ice products. The V12 algorithm corrects an error in the method for applying the multi-year sea ice mask that had caused large areas of Arctic to be erroneously masked in the Snow Depth on Sea Ice parameter. The multi-year sea ice mask and the snow melt mask are now stored within the AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 12.5 km Brightness Temperature, Sea Ice Concentration, & Snow Depth Polar Grids (AE_SI12) product. The AE_SI12 product is the only sea ice product with the Snow Depth on Sea Ice parameter, but all AMSR-E sea ice products use the same production code and therefore will be processed with the V12 algorithm.

AMSR-E Level-3 sea ice products include the following:

AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 6.25 km 89 GHz Brightness Temperature Polar Grids (AE_SI6)
AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 12.5 km Brightness Temperature, Sea Ice Concentration, & Snow Depth Polar Grids (AE_SI12)
AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 25 km Brightness Temperature & Sea Ice Concentration Polar Grids (AE_SI25)

NSIDC encourages users to always work with the latest data/highest version number available for a given date. The AMSR-E Science Investigator-led Processing System (SIPS) has begun reprocessing data, and NSIDC will notify data users when reprocessing is complete. Forward processing will begin once reprocessing is complete.

25 March 2010

New Combined AMSR-E, QuikSCAT, and WMO Data Set

NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of a new data set, Co-Registered AMSR-E, QuikSCAT, and WMO Data. The data set contains the following spatially and temporally co-registered data:

QuikSCAT and WMO data are available from 01 January 2002 through 19 March 2009, and AMSR-E data are included from 19 June 2002 through 19 March 2009. For more information and data access, please refer to the Co-Registered AMSR-E, QuikSCAT, and WMO Data product Web page.

24 March 2010

DMSP SSM/I Daily Polar Gridded Brightness Temperatures Updated

The DMSP SSM/I Daily Polar Gridded Brightness Temperatures data set has been updated through 29 April 2009. Processing updates for this product beyond 29 April 2009, however, have been temporarily suspended due to the failure of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-13 satellite. NSIDC is working with the data source for this product, Remote Sensing Systems (RSS), to acquire data from the DMSP F-17 satellite. We hope to have these data processed by late Spring 2010.

Please contact NSIDC User Services with any questions you may have.

18 March 2010

New Daily, Global Land Surface Parameter Data Set Available

The Daily Global Land Surface Parameters Derived from AMSR-E data set is now available. This data set contains geophysical parameters generated from the AMSR-E instrument on the NASA Aqua satellite, including:

Data extend from 19 June 2002 through 31 December 2008 and were derived over land for non-precipitating, non-snow, and non-ice land surface conditions. The primary input data were daily AMSR-E dual polarized multi-frequency, ascending and descending overpass brightness temperature data.

For more information and data access, please refer to the Daily Global Land Surface Parameters Derived from AMSR-E product Web page.

15 March 2010

Daily Snow Depth Analysis Data Set Now Available

A new daily snow depth analysis data set is now available from NSIDC. The data set, provided by Ross Brown and Bruce Brasnett of Environment Canada, contains a Northern Hemisphere subset of the global, daily snow depth analysis produced by the Canadian Meteorological Centre since 1998. The daily snow depth analyses are based on the optimal interpolation of real-time snow depth information from surface synoptic observations, meteorological aviation reports, and special aviation reports. Also included are monthly mean snow depth and derived monthly mean snow water equivalent estimated using a monthly mean snow density look-up table. The data set covers the period from April 1998 through the end of 2009, and will be updated annually while the operational analysis is maintained.

For more information, please see the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC) Daily Snow Depth Analysis Data product Web page.

19 February 2010

Microstructural Location and Composition of Impurities in Polar Ice Cores

The Antarctic Glaciological Data Center (AGDC) at NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of a new data set, Microstructural Location and Composition of Impurities in Polar Ice Cores.The data set consists of measurements of impurities and ions in three polar ice cores: the Vostok 5G ice core and the Byrd ice core from Antarctica, and the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) D core.

For more information on Antarctic data from AGDC, see the AGDC Data Catalog Web page at http://nsidc.org/agdc/data.html.

15 February 2010

WAIS Divide Ice Core Data Set Now Available

The Antarctic Glaciological Data Center (AGDC) at NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of a new data set, WAIS Divide Ice Core Images, Antarctica. The data set contains digital images of ice core sections from the WDC06A ice core in Antarctica.

For more information on Antarctic data from AGDC, see the AGDC Data Catalog Web page at http://nsidc.org/agdc/data.html.

15 February 2010

The Science Ice Exercise (SCICEX) Program

A new Web page has been developed and launched highlighting the efforts of NOAA@NSIDC on the Science Ice Exercise (SCICEX) program. SCICEX is a project in which Navy nuclear submarines were utilized to acquire scientific data about the Arctic Ocean. This jump page is intended to provide a central place to find out information on SCICEX and how and where to acquire the data. For details, see the The Science Ice Exercise (SCICEX) Web page on the NOAA@NSIDC Web site.

04 February 2010

All NSIDC DAAC Data Holding Now Available Through the Warehouse Inventory Search Tool

NSIDC is pleased to announce that all NSIDC DAAC data holdings can now be discovered through the Warehouse Inventory Search Tool (WIST). Previously, only DAAC ECS data were included in this tool.

21 January 2010

AMSR-E/Aqua Brightness Temperatures Updated

Both the AMSR-E/Aqua Daily EASE-Grid Brightness Temperatures and AMSR-E/Aqua Daily Global Quarter-Degree Gridded Brightness Temperatures data sets have been updated. This quarterly update extends the time series of both data sets through 31 December 2009. This includes data in all three EASE-Grid projections (north, south, and global) as well as global quarter-degree latitude-longitude gridded data.

21 January 2010

New Beta Advanced Data Search Tool

NSIDC is pleased to announce our new Beta Advanced Data Search Tool. Powered by the NSIDC Searchlight engine, this tool delivers data downloads immediately, with you in control of on-the-fly reformatting, reprojection, and subsetting of the data. In this way, we are delivering only what you want, and how you want it. The sooner you can obtain what you want, in a format you can quickly understand and use, the more time you will have to devote to your scientific investigations.

While the Searchlight engine provides extensive functionality for searching, browsing, retrieving, and manipulating NSIDC data holdings, it was built with more than just data search in mind. It represents a suite of fundamental architectural changes that allow NSIDC to develop even more capabilities to help researchers work with cryospheric data.

At this time, only a selection of NSIDC data holdings are available through this tool. A list of the current data holdings is available from the main Web page of the Beta Advanced Data Search Tool, under the heading Data Sets. However, we are working to make all NSIDC data holdings available via this tool in the future.

21 January 2010

New Google Earth KML File Published: A Climate Change Tour of Cold Places

In collaboration with the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education, NSDIC has created and released a new Google Earth movie called A Climate Change Tour of Cold Places. With a focus on snow and ice, this tour explains how snow and ice play critical roles in the changing climate. The tour is geared towards a K-12 audience with down-to-earth examples and terms that are simple to understand. Students get a closer look at what ice and snow tell us about how climate is changing especially in regions near the Earth's North and South poles. It includes interviews with NSIDC scientists, a discussion of glaciers, and an ice shelf break-up animation. The KML file is available on the NSIDC Virtual Globes Web page.

13 January 2010

NOAA@NSIDC at AGU

NOAA@NSIDC presented several demos and a poster at the Fall 2009 AGU. NOAA@NSIDC’s presence at the meeting included demonstrations of the new Glacier Photograph Collection Search & Order Interface and of a new Tour of the Cryosphere in Google Earth for K-12 outreach. A poster (C41A-0448) titled Operational Products Archived at the National Snow and Ice Data Center highlights how the team at NSIDC works with NOAA and other operational producers of sea ice and snow analyses to widen the community of users and to make products easier for scientists to use. The poster is available from the NSIDC Presentations and Posters Web page. The Glacier Photograph collection is described in an article in the NSIDC Monthly Highlights, Glacier Photographs at NSIDC, with links to the collection interface.

13 January 2010

Featured Article in NOAA's Climate Watch Magazine

Short-term Cooling on a Warming Planet, the featured article for December 31, 2009 in NOAA’s Climate Watch Magazine, was authored by NSIDC’s Michon Scott. Michon interviewed David Easterling, a climate scientist at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, and Michael Schlesinger, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, about declining temperatures since 1998.

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