On July 4, 2024, the SNPP ground station in Fairbanks, AK suffered a network outage that has interrupted SNPP VIIRS data delivery through today. Currently, there is no timeline for when the issue will resolve and it is unknown whether missing data will be recoverable. NSIDC will continue to post announcements as they become available.
On Wednesday, July 16 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (US Mountain Time), this data set may not be available in the legacy data archive due to a planned system maintenance. Earthdata Cloud access will remain available for data sets that have migrated. Users of the SMAP near real-time products should use the NASA LANCE HTTPS File System for data access.
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.
VIIRS/NPP Sea Ice Cover 6-Min L2 Swath 375m, Version 2
VIIRS/NPP Sea Ice Cover 6-Min L2 Swath 375m, Version 2
Data set id:
VNP29
DOI: 10.5067/GKJ486GAV3HH
Data Citation and Acknowledgment As a condition of using these data, you must cite the use of this data set. Such a practice gives credit to data set producers and advances principles of transparency and reproducibility.
Riggs, G., Tschudi, M. & Hall, D. K. (2023). VIIRS/NPP Sea Ice Cover 6-Min L2 Swath 375m. (VNP29, Version 2). [Data Set]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/GKJ486GAV3HH. [describe subset used if applicable]. Date Accessed 07-14-2025.
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Data: Data integrity and usability verified; data customization services available for select data
Documentation: Key metadata and comprehensive user guide available
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This is the most recent version of these data. Version Summary
Updated data release, as part of VIIRS Collection 2
In this section
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Overview
This data set reports the location of sea ice cover derived from radiance data acquired by the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. Following the approach used by MODIS, Sea Ice is detected using the Normalized Difference Snow Index.
Parameter(s):
SEA ICE
Platform(s):
Suomi-NPP
Sensor(s):
VIIRS
Data Format(s):
netCDF-4
Temporal Coverage:
19 January 2012 to present
Temporal Resolution:
6 minute
Spatial Resolution:
375 m
375 m
Spatial Coverage:
N:
90
S:
-90
E:
180
W:
-180
Blue outlined yellow areas on the map below indicate the spatial coverage for this data set.
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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.
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.
Data products from VIIRS are created to be similar to MODIS data products to ensure the continuity needed for the development of snow and sea ice climate records beyond the life expectancy of MODIS. The temporal resolution and spatial extent are identical in MODIS and VIIRS.
The lag time between observations and availability of VIIRS products is only a few days. Lag time may be extended due to satellite maneuvers and extra quality assurance required for the geolocation data after the maneuver.
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.
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.
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.