NOAA@NSIDC

Stewards of data, past and present

NOAA Data Updates

The Near-Real-Time NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 2 data set has been reprocessed to update the input data used in processing. For the past year, we inadvertently used data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) F17 instrument instead of the SSMIS F18 as stated in our user guide. This discrepancy occurred due to a technical oversight during our transition to a new file format for input data.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that the Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 4 data set, accessible through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), has been updated to include the time period of 01 January 2024 through 31 March 2024. This data set provides a consistent daily and monthly time series of sea ice concentrations beginning 25 October 1978 for both the north and south polar regions on a 25 km x 25 km grid. 

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that the Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 4 data set, accessible through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), has been updated to include the time period of 01 October 2023 through 31 December 2023. This data set provides a consistent daily and monthly time series of sea ice concentrations beginning 25 October 1978 for both the north and south polar regions on a 25 km x 25 km grid.

After some consideration, NOAA@NSIDC has decided to remove the beta release of the NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave 12.5 km Sea Ice Concentration, Version 5 data set from the public archive. This decision is due to inaccuracies and discontinuities in the older portion of the time series. We believe it is in the best interest of the user community that we resolve these issues first and then release a fully validated product. The Version 4 product will continue to be produced and is now listed as the most recent version.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that the beta release of the NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave 12.5 km Sea Ice Concentration, Version 5 data set is now available at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The sea ice concentration (SIC) climate data record (CDR) V5 data set provides a daily and monthly time series of sea ice concentrations beginning 25 October 1978 and continuing to the present for both the north and south polar regions. The data is provided on a 12.5 km x 12.5 km polar stereographic grid.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that the Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 4 data set, accessible through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), has been updated to include the time period of 01 July 2023 through 30 September 2023. This data set provides a consistent daily and monthly time series of sea ice concentrations beginning 25 October 1978 for both the north and south polar regions on a 25 km x 25 km grid.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that the Rutgers Northern Hemisphere 24 km Weekly Snow Cover Extent, September 1980 Onward, Version 1 data set, accessible through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), has been updated to include the 2023 water year. The data record now extends to 02 October 2023. This data set provides weekly snow cover extent for the Northern Hemisphere in NetCDF format beginning September 1980.

Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.7265/zzbm-2w05

Reminder that after 31 December 2023, FTP access to NOAA@NSIDC data will no longer be available. Instead, you can now access NOAA@NSIDC data using the HTTPS protocol. We are transitioning from FTP to HTTPS for data distribution to improve user accessibility, particularly through web browsers.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that the Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 4 data set, accessible through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), has been updated to include the time period of 01 January 2023 through 30 June 2023. This data set provides a consistent daily and monthly time series of sea ice concentrations beginning 25 October 1978 for both the north and south polar regions on a 25 km x 25 km grid.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that the Daily Great Lakes Ice Concentration, 1973 Onward, Version 1 data set is now available through the 2023 ice season. In addition, shapefiles for the 2003 ice season through the 2023 ice season have been added as a format of the data set. This data set consists of daily gridded lake ice concentration for the Laurentian Great Lakes from the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).

NOAA@ NSIDC is pleased to announce that MASAM2: Daily 4 km Arctic Sea Ice Concentration, Version 2 is now available. MASAM2 is a blend of the 4 km Multisensor Analyzed Sea Ice Extent – Northern Hemisphere (MASIE-NH) ice extent product and a 10 km AMSR2 sea ice concentration product. With Version 2, the data set provides ice concentration values that may range between 40 percent and 100 percent everywhere that the MASIE product has detected ice.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that the Arctic Sea Ice Concentration and Extent from Danish Meteorological Institute Sea Ice Charts, 1901-1956, Version 1 data set has been updated to Version 1.1. Version 1.1 adds quarter-degree gridded fields of sea ice concentration in NetCDF format to the existing shapefile and image representations of ice concentration from the Danish chart series.

NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of the Marginal Ice Zone 2014 Field Campaign, Version 1 data set. The field campaign was a component of a U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) Departmental Research Initiative (DRI), and was led by the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington (APL-UW).

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of the Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX) Second Pilot Study, March - May 1972: Still Images, Version 1. This dataset contains 83 JPEG photos, mainly taken during a 1972 pilot study in preparation for the main AIDJEX experiment of 1975 to 1976. The dataset also includes a few aerial photographs of ice island T-3, which are not related to AIDJEX.  The pilot study included a main camp on drifting sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, along with two satellite camps.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of the Seasonal Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Reconstructions, 1905-2020, Version 1 data set. This data set contains reconstructed seasonal Antarctic sea ice extent for 1905 through 2020. Uncertainty estimates and the metadata that describe aspects of the reconstruction process are also provided. The data are given by season for five geographic sectors (Amundsen-Bellingshausen Seas, Weddell Sea, King Hakon VII, East Antarctica, and Ross-Amundsen Sea) as well as for the entire Antarctic.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that you can now access our data using the HTTPS protocol. We are transitioning from FTP to HTTPS for distributing our data to make it easier for users to access data, especially via a web browser.

As of 9 June 2023, bi-weekly updating of the Antarctic data in the U.S. National Ice Center Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Concentration and Climatologies in Gridded Format, Version 1 data set is suspended indefinitely. The U.S. NIC has suspended production of the Antarctic charts that are the input data for this data set. It is unknown if or when they will resume production of the Antarctic charts. The Arctic charts are still being produced and will continue to be used as input data for this data set.

As of 9 June 2023, bi-weekly updating of Antarctic charts in the U.S. National Ice Center Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Charts in SIGRID-3 Format, Version 1 data set has been suspended indefinitely. The U.S. NIC has suspended production of the Antarctic charts and it is not known if or when production will resume. The Arctic charts will continue to be produced and made available on a bi-weekly basis.

Weekly updating of the U.S. National Ice Center Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Charts in SIGRID-3 Format, Version 1 data set has resumed. For the Arctic there is a temporal gap of one month (21 April to 23 May 2023), the Antarctic data have the usual two-week gap. 

Data set DOI: https://doi.org/10.7265/4b7s-rn93

Weekly updating of the U.S. National Ice Center Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Concentration and Climatologies in Gridded Format, Version 1 data set has resumed. For the Arctic between the 23 March and 19 May 2023, most files are missing with only one file for 21 April being available. The Antarctic data have the usual two-week gap i.e., there are data for 31 March, 14 April, 28 April, 12 May, and 26 May 2023.

Date set DOI: https://doi.org/10.7265/46cc-3952