• NSIDC DAAC is currently upgrading our data ingest process for NASA Earthdata Cloud. During this transition, users may notice temporary interruptions in data availability or notice small data gaps. All gaps will be resolved as quickly as possible. During this upgrade jpeg browse imagery will also not be available for preview in Earthdata search. Please reach out to NSIDC User Services with any questions or concerns.

  • Version 4 of this data set has been released. Version 3 will be retired from the NASA NSIDC DAAC on 03 February 2026. After this date, the data will no longer be accessible but all related documentation will remain available on this data set page for future reference.

  • The NSIDC DAAC is retiring access to its legacy, on-premises data archive and transitioning to the NASA Earthdata Cloud as the primary data archive. View planned retirement dates here.

AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 6.25 km 89 GHz Brightness Temperature Polar Grids, Version 3
Data set id:
AE_SI6
DOI: 10.5067/AMSR-E/AE_SI6.003
There is a more recent version of these data.
Version Summary

Changes to the Version 3 algorithm for these data include:



  • Uses Version 3 of the AMSR-E/Aqua L2A Global Swath Spatially-Resampled Brightness Temperatures data as input

  • Improved Antarctic land mask: Includes an updated ice shelf definition created by the National Ice Center Science Department in June 2011, and an updated shoreline developed from ENVISAT and RADARSAT imagery from October 2009 to April 2010. Also, this updated version no longer uses the Level-2A land flag and only uses the updated land mask for surface type classification in the southern hemisphere sea ice concentration algorithm.

  • Inclusion of ISO lineage metadata

Overview

This Level-3 gridded product (AE_SI6) includes brightness temperatures at 89.0 GHz. Data are mapped to a polar stereographic grid at 6.25 km spatial resolution. This product is an intermediate product during processing of AMSR-E Level-3 sea ice products at 12.5 km and 25 km resolution.
Parameter(s):
BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE
Platform(s):
AQUA
Sensor(s):
AMSR-E
Data Format(s):
HDF-EOS2
Temporal Coverage:
  • 1 June 2002 to 4 October 2011
Temporal Resolution:
Not Specified
Spatial Resolution:
  • 6.25 km
  • 6.25 km
Spatial Reference System(s):
  • NSIDC Sea Ice Polar Stereographic North
    EPSG:3411
  • NSIDC Sea Ice Polar Stereographic South
    EPSG:3412
Spatial Coverage:
  • N:
    -39.23
    S:
    -90
    E:
    180
    W:
    -180
  • N:
    90
    S:
    30.98
    E:
    180
    W:
    -180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.

Data Access & Tools

A free NASA Earthdata Login account is required to access these data. Learn More

Help Articles

General Questions & FAQs

This article covers frequently asked questions about the NASA NSIDC DAAC's Earthdata cloud migration project and what it means to data users.
The NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) is migrating its primary data access from its legacy, on-premises archive to the NASA Earthdata Cloud.

How to Articles

Many NSIDC DAAC data sets can be accessed using NSIDC DAAC's Data Access Tool. This tool provides the ability to search and filter data with spatial and temporal constraints using a map-based interface.Users have the option to:
To convert HDF5 files into binary format you will need to use the h5dump utility, which is part of the HDF5 distribution available from the HDF Group. How you install HDF5 depends on your operating system.
AMSR-E sea ice data sets are provided in the Polar Stereographic projection.
The NASA Earthdata Cloud is the NASA cloud-based archive of Earth observations. It is hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Learn how to find and access NSIDC DAAC data directly in the cloud.
All data from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) is directly accessible through our HTTPS file system using Wget or curl. This article provides basic command line instructions for accessing data using this method.
This article highlights the NSIDC DAAC data sets available with customization options and outlines a workflow for searching, ordering, and customizing data in NASA Earthdata Search. This approach is ideal for users who want to download data to their local machine.
NASA Worldview is a map interface that allows users to interactively browse imagery, create visualizations, and download the underlying data.
NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) provides up to date, full resolution imagery for selected NSIDC DAAC data sets.