• 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.

  • As of 01 September 2025, the NASA AMSR2 SIPS will stop processing and delivering updates to Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer Unified (AMSR Unified) data sets. For more information, see "User notice: Updates to NASA AMSR-E/AMSR2 Unified data sets to cease on 01 September 2025".

  • 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/AMSR2 Unified L2B Global Swath Ocean Products, Version 1
Data set id:
AU_Ocean
DOI: 10.5067/9YQRFKKEPUP4
This is the most recent version of these data.
Version Summary
Initial data release.

Overview

This AMSR Unified global ocean data set reports integrated water vapor and cloud liquid water content in the atmospheric column, plus 10-meter sea surface wind speeds. The data are derived from AMSR-E and AMSR2 brightness temperature observations that have been resampled by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to facilitate an intercalibrated (i.e., “unified”) AMSR-E/AMSR2 data record. Ancillary files, including product history, quality assessment (QA), and file-specific metadata are also available.
Parameter(s):
CLOUD LIQUID WATER/ICETOTAL PRECIPITABLE WATERWIND SPEED
Platform(s):
Aqua, GCOM-W1
Sensor(s):
AMSR-E, AMSR2
Data Format(s):
HDF-EOS5
Temporal Coverage:
1 June 2002 to 4 October 2011
2 July 2012 to present
Temporal Resolution:
  • 50 minute
Spatial Resolution:
  • 10 km along track
  • 10 km
  • 5 km along scan
  • 5 km
Spatial Reference System(s):
WGS 84
EPSG:4326
Spatial Coverage:
N:
89.24
S:
-89.24
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:
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.