Data Tools
Explore web services, interactive tutorials, and other tools to access and work with NSIDC data
There are many ways to access and work with NSIDC data to accommodate a wide diversity of users. Use the filter menu to explore and narrow down your options. Note that the list defaults to show our Featured tools first, however, you have more options in the Sort by menu.
- To see which tools are available for which data sets, you must go to a specific data set landing page. On the landing page under Data Access and Tools, you will see data-set specific tools to access and work with the data.
- Once you are ready to find a data set, explore our data catalog.
By capability
By output file type
Get Data
Persistent HTTPS File System that is not affected by regular NSIDC maintenance downtimes. Quickly download a few files using a web browser, or access data through a command-line utility such as WGET.
Type:
service
Get Data
Quickly download a few files using a web browser, or access data through a command-line utility such as WGET.
Get Data
Access and download NOAA@NSIDC data using a web browser, or through a command line utility such as WGET, or using programming languages such as R or Python.
Type:
service
Get Data
Download data via FTP using an FTP client, command line utility or a script, e.g., Python
Type:
service
Search & Discover
Get Data
Filter files before downloading based on date, spatial area, or file name. Choose from various download options, such as Python script. Export bounding boxes as a GeoJSON.
Visualize
Get Data
Search & Discover
Search, visualize, and download data from NSIDC's long-term IceBridge archive. The portal provides flight lines, map-based granule extents, browse images (where available), Northern and Southern Hemisphere polar views, spatial and temporal filters, and keyword search options.
Visualize
Get Data
Search & Discover
Customize
Discover, access, and visualize data from NASA's ICESat and ICESat-2 missions.
Supported software languages:
Python
Type: Web Application
Customization Capabilities:
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
Output Formats:
ASCII
CSV
HDF5
Visualize
Search & Discover
Get Data
Search and order data from all NASA DAACs using spatial and temporal filters in a map interface. Reformatting, reprojecting, and subsetting options are available for some data sets.
Type: Web Application
Get Data
Search & Discover
earthaccess is a python library to search and access NASA Earth science data with just a few lines of code.
Supported software languages:
Python
Get Data
Customize
Programmatically request selected data products through our API. This tool is valuable for selecting just the parameters you need from big data sets. Apply spatial and temporal filters, subsetting, reformatting, and reprojection.
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
reprojection
spatial subsetting
variable subsetting
Interpolation Options:
Bicubic Interpolation
Bilinear Interpolation
Nearest Neighbor
Output Projections:
Geographic
Universal Transverse Mercator
Polar Stereographic
Sinusoidal
Plate Carree
Output Formats:
HDF-EOS
GEOTIFF
HDF-EOS
Get Data
Programmatically request selected data products through NSIDC's API. Bulk download using spatial and temporal filters, or incorporate data access commands into code/scripts as needed.
Visualize
Search & Discover
Get Data
Customize
GIS
Browse and display global satellite imagery layers from NASA GIBS. Download raw data, share screenshots, and create animations from the imagery.
Type: Web Application
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
Output Formats:
GEOTIFF
GIF
JPEG
KML
PNG
Visualize
GIS
Get Data
Visualize and download data from the GLIMS Glacier Database using a map-based interface.
Type: Web Application
Output Formats:
KML
Search & Discover
Get Data
GIS
Search and download data from the GLIMS Glacier Database, using custom parameters in a text-search form.
Type: Web Application
Output Formats:
KML
Get Data
Customize
Sign up for automatic delivery of new data from active NASA satellite missions. Customize data with reformatting, reprojection, and subsetting if desired.
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
reprojection
spatial subsetting
variable subsetting
Get Data
Sign up for automatic delivery of new data from active NASA satellite missions. Data products are delivered via SCP or HTTPS pull.
Get Data
Access data directly from the NASA Earthdata Cloud via Amazon Web Services Simple Storage Service (AWS S3). This access option is only available when working within the us-west-2 region and requires additional AWS S3 credentials.
Type:
service
Visualize
Analyze
Get Data
Search & Discover
GIS
Customize
Extract point and area samples from geospatial data via spatial, temporal, and/or parameter subsetting. Preview and interact with samples before downloading. The Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples tool is only available for select NSIDC data products.
Type: Web Application
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
reprojection
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
variable subsetting
Output Formats:
CSV
GEOTIFF
HDF-EOS2
HDF5
JSON
Get Data
Search & Discover
Spatially search for and download land ice velocity data from Landsat 8, using a map interface.
Output Formats:
GEOTIFF
NETCDF-4
PNG
Get Data
Search & Discover
Visualize
Search the Glacier Photograph Collection by glacier name, location, date, photographer, and more. View lower-resolution photographs online and order high-resolution versions.
Output Formats:
ASCII
JPEG
TIFF
Get Data
Search & Discover
Customize
Search the entire World Glacier Inventory by glacier name, number, or parameters (latitude/longitude, altitude, size, length, features). Specify output parameters and format (text or .csv file).
Customization Capabilities:
variable subsetting
Output Formats:
CSV
Visualize
Browse Arctic- and Antarctic-wide changes in sea ice. View daily and monthly averages of extent and concentration. View time series graphs of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.
Output Formats:
PNG
Visualize
Get Data
View and download the most recent daily observations of sea ice extent and ice edge boundary for the entire Arctic and/or a specific region. Compare time series of sea ice extent from the most recent four weeks to the same four-week period in the previous four years.
Output Formats:
CSV
GEOTIFF
NETCDF-4
PNG
Analyze
Visualize
Search & Discover
Customize
Learn how to discover, access, subset, and visualize Arctic sea ice data from Python-based Jupyter Notebooks. Tutorial comes with open-source libraries to harmonize sea ice height from ICESat-2, and ice surface temperature from MODIS.
Supported software languages:
Python
Customization Capabilities:
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
variable subsetting
reprojection
Output Formats:
HDF-EOS2
HDF5
Visualize
Display browse images for five different parameters from three different NOAA@NSIDC Arctic sea ice products in a spreadsheet-like format.
Visualize
See how Arctic/Antarctic sea ice extent changes throughout the calendar year using a customizable graph in a web browser. Compare extents for all years since 1979, and click on any point in any year's trajectory for a map of daily sea ice concentration.
Get Data
Search & Discover
GIS
Customize
Download data, and explore data coverage and customization using the Python-based Jupyter Notebook.
Supported software languages:
Python
Customization Capabilities:
reprojection
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
variable subsetting
Visualize
GIS
Customize
Access georegistered images for data layers from select NSIDC data products. Use OGC protocols (WMS, WFS, and WCS) through HTTP URLs or OGC-compatible clients (ArcMap, QGIS, Google Earth) to access the data.
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
reprojection
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
variable subsetting
Output Formats:
PNG
GEOTIFF
GIF
HDF-EOS
JPEG
KML
NETCDF-4
PNG
Analyze
Geolocate and display EASE-Grid and EASE-Grid 2.0 data sets with IDL software.
Supported software languages:
IDL
Search & Discover
Get Data
Customize
Search the Global Lake and River Ice Phenology Database for freeze/thaw dates and the physical characteristics for several hundred lakes and rivers. You can search using country, latitude/longitude, name, freeze status, and temporal range. Select the desired output format: browser, CSV, or ASCII.
Customization Capabilities:
variable subsetting
Output Formats:
ASCII
CSV
Visualize
Get Data
Use example Python, MATLAB, IDL, or NCL code to import, read, and/or visualize select NSIDC DAAC data products.
Supported software languages:
MATLAB
Python
IDL
Type: Downloadable Software
Visualize
Explore contents of HDF4 and HDF5 files, including file structure, metadata, and parameter values.
Type: Downloadable Software
Output Formats:
ASCII
HDF4
HDF5
Visualize
Get Data
Search & Discover
Customize
Compare decades of harmonized data across pre-IceBridge, IceBridge, ICESat/GLAS, and ICESat-2 data products. Access and visualize data using a download widget, map-based customization, API code examples, and other tools.
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
reprojection
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
Visualize
Get Data
Search & Discover
Customize
Access ICESat-2 data with as few as three lines of code. This Python software library wraps around APIs supported by the NSIDC DAAC.
Supported software languages:
Python
Type: Downloadable Software
Customization Capabilities:
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
variable subsetting
Output Formats:
HDF5
Visualize
Get Data
Search & Discover
Demonstrates using the earthaccess python package to search for and directly access cloud-hosted ICESat-2 data from an Amazon Compute Cloud (EC2) instance. This python-based Jupyter notebook uses Land Ice Height (ATL06) granules as an example.
Supported software languages:
Python
Analyze
Visualize
Get Data
Search & Discover
Customize
Utilize the Jupyterbook for the latest Hackweek virtual event and learn about the ICESat-2 satellite, data products, data-access tools, and more. Access past hackwork tutorials from the ICESat-2 Hackweek Github Organization listed in the Quick Links.
Supported software languages:
Python
Type: Downloadable Software
Customization Capabilities:
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
variable subsetting
Analyze
Find ICESat/GLAS laser track start dates and times, as well as track identification information, choosing from multiple data/time formats.
Type: Web Application
Analyze
Find information about ICESat/GLAS laser track start times and dates based on laser track. You can search based on a specific period or for all time periods.
Type: Web Application
Customize
Interpolate BedMachine Antarctica data (NSIDC-0756) onto user-defined polar stereo coordinates with Python and MATLAB scripts. This tool lets you reproject data to geodetic latitude/longitude.
Supported software languages:
MATLAB
Python
Customization Capabilities:
reprojection
Search & Discover
Get Data
GIS
Search and select Greenland Ice Mapping Project GIMP data at NSIDC, guided by a Python-based Jupyter Notebook. Build a QGIS project file from the search results. View data remotely if desired.
Supported software languages:
Python
Type: Downloadable Software
Last updated:
Visualize
Search & Discover
Get Data
Customize
Spatially and temporally filter Greenland Ice Mapping Project (GIMP) image and velocity data, guided by a Python-based Jupyter Notebook. Spatially subset data and download in NetCDF format. This tool creates an interactive plot of time series data at selected points.
Supported software languages:
Python
Type: Downloadable Software
Last updated:
Customization Capabilities:
spatial subsetting
variable subsetting
data reformatting
Output Formats:
NETCDF-4
Visualize
Customize
Reformat and/or visualize LVIS level 1B and 2 data products. Readers are available in C and IDL.
Supported software languages:
C
IDL
Type: Downloadable Software
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
Output Formats:
ASCII
Visualize
Calculate past and future satellite overpasses, based on latitude/longitude or map location.
Type: Web Application
Visualize
Customize
Use Python scripts to read and visualize daily and monthly snow depth and snow water equivalent ASCII files from the Canadian Meteorological Center Daily Snow Depth Analysis Data (NSIDC-0477) product. Convert a one-year snow depth ASCII file to GeoTIFF.
Supported software languages:
Python
Type: Downloadable Software
Last updated:
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
Output Formats:
GEOTIFF
Customize
A set of software tools that can be used to read HDF-EOS files containing MODIS swath data and produce flat binary files containing gridded data in a variety of map projections.
Type: Downloadable Software
Customization Capabilities:
reprojection
spatial subsetting
Get Data
Search & Discover
Search the Online Dehn Ice Charts database by geographic region and/or date range. Order charts meeting your search criteria.
Output Formats:
PNG
TIFF
Get Data
Customize
Access selected data products over the internet with NASA's data access protocol. Subset and reformat data through a web browser, command line interface, or custom interface, e.g., C NetCDF- or Java NetCDF-compliant programs.
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
spatial subsetting
variable subsetting
Output Formats:
HDF5
ASCII
HDF5
NETCDF-3
NETCDF-4
Visualize
Customize
Reformat and/or visualize IceBridge data products using readers available in multiple programming languages.
Supported software languages:
Matlab
C
IDL
Python
Perl
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
Output Formats:
ASCII
BINARY
PNG
Visualize
Analyze
Visualize georeferenced arrays in NetCDF, HDF and GRIB formats. Plot data on global or regional maps, choosing from multiple map projections. Overlay continent outlines or masks.
Type: Downloadable Software
Output Formats:
ASCII
CSV
GIF
HDF-EOS2
HDF-EOS5
HDF4
HDF5
JPEG
KML
NETCDF-3
NETCDF-4
PNG
TIFF
Analyze
Visualize
Customize
Use this toolbox to read, process, analyze, and output ICESat-2 ATL03 and ATL08 data in these formats: figures, .las, .csv, .kml.
Supported software languages:
Python
Type: Downloadable Software
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
variable subsetting
Output Formats:
ASCII
CSV
HDF5
KML
PNG
Analyze
Visualize
Customize
Use this GUI to interpret, label, and visualize ICESat-2 ATL03 data.
Type: Downloadable Software
Customization Capabilities:
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
Output Formats:
ASCII
CSV
JPEG
PNG
Analyze
Visualize
GIS
Get Data
Customize
Access, subset, project, interpolate, analyze, and/or combine data products with this Python library. Useful for geospatial analyses run locally or in the cloud.
Supported software languages:
Python
Type: Downloadable Software
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
spatial subsetting
temporal subsetting
variable subsetting
reprojection
Output Formats:
GEOTIFF
HDF4
HDF5
Visualize
Visualize changes in Arctic air temperatures, frozen ground, sea ice concentration and age, snow cover duration, vegetation greenness, and water vapor. Animate maps and time series graphs.
Search & Discover
Search the SCICEX data inventory. Data that are archived at NSIDC and externally are listed. To access data archived at NSIDC use the FTP File System access option. For externally archived data, the links will direct you to external tools to retrieve the data.
Type: Web Application
Analyze
Visualize
Analyze monthly or daily sea ice concentration and extent. Plot monthly extent anomalies. Display concentration trend images based on date, climatology, and trend range.
Output Formats:
JPEG
PNG
Visualize
View animated maps of monthly sea ice extent, concentration, anomalies and trends for the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.
Visualize
Compare sea ice extent for any two days or months between 1979 and present.
Output Formats:
PNG
Visualize
Get Data
Search & Discover
Customize
Search for and download NSIDC DAAC data using the earthaccess python package. This python-based Jupyter notebook also demonstrates geospatial operations to crop and resample one GeoTIFF based on the extent and pixel size of another GeoTIFF, with the end goal of plotting one on top of the other. Two data sets from the NASA MEaSUREs program are used as examples.
Supported software languages:
Python
Customization Capabilities:
spatial subsetting
resampling
Output Formats:
GEOTIFF
Analyze
Visualize
Customize
Get Data
Process Earth science data on demand via a web service and gain low-latency access to customized data products using parameters supplied at the time of request.
Type: Downloadable Software
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
Output Formats:
HDF5
Visualize
Get Data
Download, bulk download, or visualize SMAP L3 and L4 data, guided by Python-based Jupyter Notebooks. These notebooks include examples of applying recommended quality flags for SMAP data.
Supported software languages:
Python
Output Formats:
HDF5
Visualize
Analyze
Search & Discover
GIS
Customize
Find, download, and process select SMAP L3 and L4 data products using this R package. This tool includes functions to extract gridded products and reformat to a GeoTIFF.
Supported software languages:
R
Type: Downloadable Software
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
variable subsetting
Output Formats:
GEOTIFF
HDF5
Analyze
Visualize
Search & Discover
GIS
Customize
A Python-based Jupyter Notebook demonstrating how to access and visualize coincident snow data from the NSIDC DAAC across in-situ, airborne, and satellite platforms from NASA's SnowEx, ASO, and MODIS data sets, respectively.
Supported software languages:
Python
Customization Capabilities:
data reformatting
reprojection
spatial subsetting
Output Formats:
CSV
GEOTIFF
Analyze
Customize
Search & Discover
Get Data
Query, access, analyze, and download SnowEx data sets using a SQL database.
Supported software languages:
Python
Type: Downloadable Software
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