Data Announcements

The following data sets have been retired from NSIDC as of July 31:NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 4Near-Real-Time NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 2Data from these versions are no longer accessible, though all related documentation remains available on the data set web pages for reference:

Versions 7 of ATLAS/ICESat-2 L1B Converted Telemetry Data (ATL02) and ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data (ATL03) are now available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). ATL03 contains height above the WGS 84 ellipsoid, latitude, longitude, and time for each photon downlinked by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board ICESat-2.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of Sea Ice Index, Version 4. This new version uses input data from the JAXA GCOM-W1 AMSR2 instrument for 1 January 2025 through forward processing. Input sea ice concentration fields from AMSR2-using NSIDC-0803 now replace those from SSMIS-using NSIDC-0081 and NSIDC-0051. 

Version 4 data sets of AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 6.25 km 89 GHz Brightness Temperature Polar Grids, AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 12.5 km Brightness Temperature, Sea Ice Concentration, & Snow Depth Polar Grids, and AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 25 km Brightness Temperature & Sea Ice Concentration Polar Grids are now available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC).

The VIIRS/NPP Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 375m CMG, Version 2 and VIIRS/JPSS1 Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 375m CMG, Version 2 data sets are now available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). These data sets provide a daily global view of cloud-gap-filled  snow cover at 375 m resolution.

The Near Real-Time MODIS/Terra L3 Global Daily 500m SIN Grid Snow Cover, Grain Size, and Dust Radiative Forcing, Version 1 data set, available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC), has been updated. Spatial coverage has been expanded to include 6 new tiles over the Andes mountains in Chile, South America.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Sea Ice Index, Version 4, available at the National Snow and Ice Data Center on August 1. This new version transitions from SSMIS to AMSR2 data due to the end of access to SSMIS data. The AMSR2 instrument provides high-quality sea ice concentration data that will ensure the continued reliability of the Sea Ice Index product.Please note that AMSR2 typically locates the ice edge slightly inboard compared to SSMIS, resulting in somewhat smaller ice extent measurements:

Version 2 of MEaSUREs ITS_LIVE Regional Glacier and Ice Sheet Surface Velocities is now available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). This new version contains mean annual surface velocities (1984–2022), plus climatological mean velocities (2014–2022), for 16 glacier-covered regions.

The SnowEx21 Time Series Snow Depth Measurements, Version 1 data set is now available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). The data set contains manual snow depth measurements collected as part of the NASA SnowEx 2021 Time Series campaign. Data were collected at five study sites: Cameron Pass, Fraser Experimental Forest, and Senator Beck, Colorado; Boise River Basin, Idaho; and the Central Agriculture Research Center (CARC), Montana.

ICESat-2 Derived Canopy Height Model, Version 1 is now available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). This data set provides a regression-based canopy height model of the contiguous United States (CONUS) using data from ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height (ATL08), as well as data from Landsat, LANDFIRE, and NASADEM. The temporal coverage of input data is from 1 Jan 2019 to 31 Dec 2021.

Access to High Mountain Asia data sets in the legacy, on-premises archive at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) will be retired on 19 August 2025. The NASA Earthdata Cloud is now the primary data archive for HMA data. If you currently access data through the legacy, on-premises archive, including through the HTTPS File System or through the Earthdata Search Stage for Delivery (ECHO Orders) option, please update your data access workflows and scripts to use the Earthdata Cloud archive. 

The SnowEx21 Prairie Station Digital Surface Models from UAV-LiDAR, Version 1 data set, available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC), has been updated. A high resolution orthomosaic GeoTIFF derived from UAV-Lidar collected on 21 January 2021 has been added to the data set. Data set DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5067/2JA2F0NF99TF

The following data sets will be retired from NSIDC on July 31:

The Near Real-time SMAP L1B Radiometer Half-Orbit Time-Ordered Brightness Temperatures, Version 105, and Near Real-time SMAP L2 Radiometer Half-Orbit 36 km EASE-Grid Soil Moisture, Version 107 data sets at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) have been updated.

With the migration of GLAS/ICESat data to the NASA Earthdata Cloud, transformation services will be retired and no replacement services in the cloud are planned for GLAS/ICESat L1B Global Elevation Data (HDF5), Version 34 (GLAH06). As a result, downloading a subsetted GLAH06 file in HDF5 format is no longer an option within the OpenAltimetry web application.

The EASE Grids Ancillary Grid Information, Version 1 and the Polar Stereographic Ancillary Grid Information, Version 1 data sets available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) have been updated. This update includes minor changes to the metadata and attributes to be more in line with NSIDC's netCDF guidelines.EASE Grids Ancillary Grid Information, Version 1 

The NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) is pleased to announce the release of two new data products based on the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2):AMSR2 Daily Polar Gridded Brightness Temperatures, Version 1 AMSR2 Daily Polar Gridded Sea Ice Concentrations, Version 1

The Calibrated Enhanced-Resolution Passive Microwave Daily EASE-Grid 2.0 Brightness Temperature ESDR, Version 2 data set, available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC), has been updated to include Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) data from 2012 to present, and is now being updated daily.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce that the Sea Ice Index, Version 3 data set, accessible through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), has been updated from near-real-time data to final data for the period 01 January 2023 through 31 December 2024.

The Near Real-Time MODIS/Terra L3 Global Daily 500m SIN Grid Snow Cover, Grain Size, and Dust Radiative Forcing, Version 1 data set, available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC), has been updated.  Spatial coverage has been expanded to include two tiles over the South Island in New Zealand. The temporal coverage has also been extended.