Overview

NSIDC provides a suite of value-added products to aid in investigations of the variability and trends of sea ice cover. These products provide users with information about sea ice extent, total ice-covered area, ice persistence, monthly climatologies of sea ice concentrations, and ocean masks. The products are derived from the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS).

Please note that these products may not contain the most recent data; therefore, you should use caution, particularly with the ocean masks and sea ice climatologies, which may not be representative of ice cover conditions outside of the time period used to produce the products. As new data are processed, the products are updated. These products are derived from the NASA Team Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave data and from the Bootstrap Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS data. For product details and to access data, see the Data Summaries Web page.