A Guide to NSIDC-0802 and NSIDC-0803
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
These data sets provide daily files of brightness temperature data and sea ice concentrations for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. These data products serve as a replacement for the following SSMIS-based data products, which are expected to cease on 31 July 2025:
- Near-Real-Time DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Daily Polar Gridded Brightness Temperature
- Near-Real-Time DMSP SSMIS Daily Polar Gridded Sea Ice Concentrations
Please refer to Earthdata: Status Update On DMSP Data Products for further details on the transition from DMSP SSMIS data.
Projection and Grid Description
Details on the spatial coverage of the North and South Polar Stereographic regions can be found on the Polar Stereographic Webpage. The spatial resolution is 25 km
Grid size varies by region:
North: 304 columns x 448 rows
South: 316 columns x 332 rows
Pole Hole Mask
The Pole Hole mask is a circular mask that symmetrically covers the observed maximum extent of the missing data resulting from the orbit inclination and instrument swath near the North Pole. The pole hole mask in the Northern Hemisphere sea ice concentration fields of the AMSR2 Daily Polar Gridded Sea Ice Concentrations, Version 1 data set does not cover the full pole hole. As a result, there are 52 grid cells (approximately 35,000 square kilometers) that are in the pole hole, but are flagged as missing instead of pole. This will be resolved in the next version release.