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What's hot in the news around climate and sea ice and what are scientists talking about now? 
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.
Sea Ice Trends and Climatologies from SMMR and SSM/I-SSMIS, Version 3
This is the most recent version of these data.
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.
COMPREHENSIVE Level of Service
Data: Data integrity and usability verified; data customization services available for select data
Documentation: Key metadata and comprehensive user guide available
User Support: Assistance with data access and usage; guidance on use of data in tools and data customization services
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Geographic Coverage |
- If you are not currently logged in to Earthdata, you will be prompted to do so.
- You may register for an Earthdata Login if you do not have an account.
Once you have logged in, you will be able to click and download files via a Web browser. There are also options for downloading via a command line or client. For more detailed instructions, please see Options Available for Bulk Downloading Data from HTTPS with Earthdata Login.
As a condition of using these data, you must cite the use of this data set using the following citation. For more information, see our Use and Copyright Web page.
Stroeve, J. and W. N. Meier. 2018. Sea Ice Trends and Climatologies from SMMR and SSM/I-SSMIS, Version 3. [Indicate subset used]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/IJ0T7HFHB9Y6. [Date Accessed].
