A Daily Analysis of Marginal Ice Zone Boundaries from the U.S. National Ice Center Now Available

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of the U.S. National Ice Center Daily Marginal Ice Zone Products data set. The marginal ice zone (MIZ) is defined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as “the region of an ice cover which is affected by waves and swell penetrating into the ice from the open ocean." This data product is a U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC) rendering of the MIZ as the band of ice in concentrations between 1/10 and 8/10, or about 10% to 80% concentration, that surrounds Arctic and Antarctic pack ice with higher concentrations. The time series begins in September 2004 for the Arctic and January 2010 for the Antarctic. The products are available in shapefile, ASCII, and Google Earth KMZ formats. The mission of the USNIC is to provide ice and snow products, ice forecasting, and other environmental intelligence services for the U.S. government. The USNIC products are designed to meet the operational needs of those planning or conducting operations in ice-infested waters. The USNIC-produced MIZ daily maps may be preferable to other daily sea ice products for research applications that benefit from accuracy and high resolution and do not require ice concentration information that is more precise than the MIZ product’s 10% - 80% and greater than 80% ranges. Applications may include initializing or validating ice-forecast models and assessing the accuracy of satellite-data-derived products. In cooperation with the USNIC, NOAA@NSIDC is now archiving and distributing this MIZ product. To access these data, visit the U.S. National Ice Center Daily Marginal Ice Zone Products data set landing page. Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.7265/ggcq-1m67