Sea Ice Trends and Climatologies from SMMR and SSM/I-SSMIS, Version 3
Data set id:
NSIDC-0192
DOI: 10.5067/IJ0T7HFHB9Y6
This is the most recent version of these data.
Version Summary
Version Summary
Changes to this version include:
- Incorporated a change from Version 2 to Version 3 of the Bootstrap data set. For V3 Bootstrap data, the concentration record was re-calculated for the entire period of the data set, 1978 through current processing. The most impactful changes were a lowering of the threshold to 10% for ice extent, and the recalculation of the algorithm’s tie points every day. However, despite the new 10% threshold for Bootstrap input data, this Sea Ice Trends and Climatologies data set continues to be derived using a 15% threshold.
Overview
NSIDC provides this data set to aid investigations of variability and trends in sea ice cover. Ice cover in these data are indicated by sea ice concentration: the percentage of the ocean surface covered by ice. The ice-covered area indicates how much ice is present; it is the total surface area of a pixel multiplied by the ice concentration in that pixel. Ice persistence is the percentage of months over the data set time period that ice existed at a location. The ice extent indicates whether ice is present; here, ice is considered to exist in a pixel if the sea ice concentration exceeds 15 percent. This data set provides users with data about total ice-covered areas, sea ice extent, ice persistence, and monthly climatologies of sea ice concentrations.
Parameter(s):
ICE EXTENTSEA ICE CONCENTRATION
Platform(s):
DMSP 5D-2/F11, DMSP 5D-2/F13, DMSP 5D-2/F15, DMSP 5D-2/F8, DMSP 5D-3/F17, Nimbus-5, Nimbus-7
Sensor(s):
ESMR, SMMR, SSM/I, SSMIS
Data Format(s):
PNG, Binary, JPEG, ASCII
Temporal Coverage:
26 October 1978 to 31 December 2022
Temporal Resolution:
- Varies
Spatial Resolution:
- 25 km
- 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:
90
S:
30.98
E:
180
W:
-180
N:
-39.23
S:
-90
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
Documentation
User Guide
Sensor and Instrument Information
Help Articles
General Questions & FAQs
NSIDC currently archives passive microwave sea ice concentration products based on two algorithms: the NASA Team algorithm and the Bootstrap algorithm. Both algorithms were developed by researchers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the 1980s.
How to Articles
The following are instructions describing how to import sea ice binary files into ArcGIS. These instructions were tested with ArcMap 10.5 and 10.6.
Data from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) can be accessed directly from our HTTPS file system. We provide basic command line Wget and curl instructions for HTTPS file system downloads below.