• After 1 September 2025, the sea ice concentration CDR will no longer have the AMSR2 prototype data. See the User Notice for more information. 

  • Notice: The Department of Defense (DoD) has extended the processing and delivery of the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) data through the end of the DMSP mission, planned for September 2026. We are working to release a new version of this product later this year that will use AMSR2 in preparation for the September 2026 ending of the SSMIS sensors. We will provide more details on this new version when they become available. Please contact NSIDC User Services if you have questions.  

Near-Real-Time NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 3
Data set id:
G10016
DOI: 10.7265/j0z0-4h87
This is the most recent version of these data.
Version Summary
The major change in this version are the following:
* Added a prototype AMSR2 sea ice concentration.
* Uses the NASA Team 2 land spillover correction instead of the original NASA Team correction.
* Improved the Arctic pole hole filling.
* Uses a new land mask.
* The concentration variable (cdr_seaice_conc) contains concentration values only (no land mask).
* Added a separate surface type variable (surface_type_mask).
* Improved spatial interpolation of TBs.
* Includes the raw NT (raw_nt_seaice_conc) and BT (raw_bt_seaice_conc), maintaining full range of values instead of clipping at 100% for provenance and transparency.
* Updated the layout and names of variables, with added netCDF groups for better organization.
* Sea ice concentration values below 10% in the CDR are set to 0%.
* Fixed a bug in the BT tie points calculations.
* Fixed a bug in the one-sided temporal interpolation calculation.
In this section
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Overview

This data set provides a near-real-time Climate Data Record (CDR) of sea ice concentration from passive microwave data. The Near-real-time NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration (NRT CDR) data set is the near-real-time version of the final NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration (G02202). The NRT CDR is designed to fill the temporal gap between updates of the final CDR, occurring every three to six months, and to provide the most recent data.
Parameter(s):
SEA ICE CONCENTRATION
Platform(s):
DMSP 5D-3/F17
GCOM-W1
Sensor(s):
AMSR2
SSMIS
Data Format(s):
NetCDF
Temporal Coverage:
  • 1 July 2024 to present
Temporal Resolution:
  • 1 day
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:
    30.1
    E:
    180
    W:
    -180
  • N:
    -39.2
    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

Documentation

Help Articles

General Questions & FAQs

Descriptions of and differences between the NASA Team and Bootstrap algorithms
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.
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How to Articles

How to access and download NOAA@NSIDC data
NOAA@NSIDC data recently transitioned to HTTPS. The directory structure has NOT changed, but the beginning of the URL has changed from:ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/DATASETS/to:
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How to access NOAA@NSIDC data sets in PolarWatch
Currently three NOAA@NSIDC data sets are available in NOAA's PolarWatch Data Catalog. Please note that in the catalog the Climate Data Record (CDR) data sets are split up into Antarctic and Arctic data sets:
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