Passive Microwave Sea Ice Products
NSIDC develops, archives, and distributes passive microwave sea ice products. This Web page lists the sea ice products available from NSIDC acquired with passive microwave instruments such as the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS), the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). The data are categorized into following categories:
- Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentrations
- Other Passive Microwave Sea Ice Products
- Sea Ice Trends and Climatologies
Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentrations
NSIDC develops, archives, and distributes passive microwave sea ice concentration data. This section lists the sea ice concentration products available from NSIDC acquired with passive microwave instruments. The data sets are either available in the polar stereographic projection or in the Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid (EASE-Grid). For a more detailed comparison of the strengths and limitations of these two projections, see Question 1 on the Frequently Asked Questions Web page. Choose from the following links to explore the products:
- Polar Stereographic Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentrations
- EASE-Grid Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentrations
Polar Stereographic Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentrations
Three passive microwave sea ice concentrations in the polar stereographic projection that NSIDC archives and distributes are developed at NSIDC and at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). One of the three data sets is developed at NSIDC and is created with the Bootstrap algorithm. The other two data sets are developed at GSFC: one created with a modified Bootstrap algorithm, and the other created with a modified NASA Team algorithm. For a more detailed comparison of the strengths and limitations of these products and algorithms, see Question 2 and Question 3 on the Frequently Asked Questions Web page.
- NSIDC-Developed Sea Ice Concentrations
- GSFC-Developed Sea Ice Concentrations
- Other Sea Ice Concentrations in the Polar Stereographic Grid
NSIDC-Developed Sea Ice Concentrations [top]
| DIF ID | Data Set Title |
|---|---|
| NSIDC-0002 | DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Daily and Monthly Polar Gridded Boostrap Sea Ice Concentrations |
GSFC-Developed Sea Ice Concentrations [top]
| DIF ID | Data Set Title |
|---|---|
| NSIDC-0079 | Bootstrap Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS |
| NSIDC-0051 | Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data |
Other Sea Ice Concentration Products in a Polar Stereographic Grid [top]
EASE-Grid Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentrations [top]
NSIDC archives and distributes passive microwave sea ice concentrations in the EASE-Grid projection. The EASE-Grid is based on a philosophy of digital mapping and gridding definitions developed at NSIDC. For more about the EASE-Grid, see the EASE-Grid Data Web site. The following sea ice concentration product is available from NSIDC in EASE-Grid.
| DIF ID | Data Set Title |
|---|---|
| NISE1 | Near-Real-Time SSM/I-SSMIS EASE-Grid Daily Global Ice Concentration and Snow Extent |
Other Passive Microwave Sea Ice Products
NSIDC archives and distributes other sea ice data sets from passive microwave sensors. These include sea ice velocity, extent, melt onset, and brightness temperatures. The table below lists the different data sets.
Sea Ice Trends and Climatologies
The sea ice trends and climatology products are value-added data sets derived from the longest time series of ice concentration available from passive microwave sea ice concentrations. The data sets are produced using either the Bootstrap or the NASA Team algorithm. Monthly and annual basin averages of sea ice extent, sea ice concentration, extent anomalies, and concentration anomalies are produced along with time series and climatologies.
| DIF ID | Data Set Title |
|---|---|
| G02135 | Sea Ice Index |
| NSIDC-0192 | Sea Ice Trends and Climatologies from SMMR and SSM/I-SSMIS |
