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Introduction NSIDC developed a number of IDL programs to browse and visualize TOVS Pathfinder Path-P Daily and Monthly Polar Gridded Atmospheric Parameters data files. The IDL tools described in this tutorial are available via HTTPS, along with the aforementioned data set, in the /tools/ directory. For instructions on installing these tools, see the Getting Started section below.

The TOVS Level 1b data for some days were either unavailable or of insufficient quality to use as ingest into the Path-P processing algorithm. Currently, empty files exist as placeholders for these dates until compatible data can be obtained.

The NSIDC DAAC Earthdata Cloud collections are stored in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), a secure, scalable object storage service. If you plan to work directly with data in the cloud or use command-line tools, it’s helpful to understand how S3 buckets and URLs are structured.This guide explains:

The following table lists the tools and services available for VIIRS data.

NASA Worldview is a map interface that allows users to interactively browse imagery, create visualizations, and download the underlying data.

NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) provides up to date, full resolution imagery for selected NSIDC DAAC data sets. Adding GIBS layers via OGC methods, such as Web Map Service (WMS), Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) and Tiled Web Map Service (TWMS) provides an easy way to visualize the entire time series of these data in commerical tools like Arc

This webinar introduces the ICESat-2 mission and shows you how to explore, access and customize ICESat-2 data with the OpenAltimetry application, using NSIDC DAAC tools, and shows you how to subset, reformat and analyze the data using Python. This webinar was originally presented on July 23, 2019, and is available on the NASA Earthdata Youtube channel.

When utilizing the SMAP Near-Real-Time (NRT) data products (SPL2SMP_NRT and SPL1BTB_NRT) it is important to understand how they differ from standard SMAP data products and their limitations. Below we outline the main differences in each NRT data product.SPL1BTB_NRT:

The following table describes both the required and actual latencies for the different SMAP radiometer data sets. Latency is defined as the time (# days, hh:mm:ss) from data acquisition to product generation.

MODIS is an optical sensor, which has inherent limitations in observing sea ice and snow. Unlike a passive-microwave sensor, which can detect microwave energy through clouds, MODIS cannot observe the surface when cloud cover is present. MODIS products, therefore, have cloud masks built into the data arrays to prevent clouds from being interpreted as ice and snow.

MODIS provides global coverage every one to two days in 36 spectral bands. Spatial resolution of the MODIS data varies by band from 250 m to 1 km. By contrast, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor has five spectral bands with a spatial resolution of 4 km or 1 km. For more information about MODIS, visit NASA's MODIS webpages.

The two grids are based on different map projections. The polar stereographic projection was initially used with ice concentration products developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and has been retained for historical consistency. It specifies a projection plane tangent to the earth at 70° latitude, which was selected so that little or no distortion would occur in the marginal ice zone.

The following table describes the data subsetting, reformatting, and reprojection services that are currently available for MODIS data via the NASA Earthdata Search tool.

This short article describes the customization services available for SMAP data using Earthdata Search.

Assuming the data that were produced conform to the ML (25km) EASE-Grid definition, defined by the Ml.gpd and described in our Guide to EASE Grids, then you should be able to utilize the IDL tools that are distributed with our other EASE Grid geolocation tools.

There are five different levels of AMSR-E data, Level-0 through Level-4. Level-0 Reconstructed, unprocessed instrument/payload data at full resolution; any and all communications artifacts, for example, synchronization frames, communications headers, and duplicate data removed.

A variety of features can be detected in the RAMP image mosaic. SAR data allow ready discrimination between areas of high snow accumulation, crevassed regions, and areas susceptible to seasonal melt. Field camps and features such as runways and heavily traveled snowmobile tracks are also visible. The collection of images below demonstrates the degree of detail provided by the RAMP image mosaic. Please note the white and/or blue colors used in the annotations on the images are simply for better contrast against the background and have no other significance.

NSIDC has scripts that run several times a day. If new SNODAS files are found, these scripts will automatically post them to our FTP server. If you need data sooner than the normal timeframe that NSIDC uploads files to our FTP site, you can contact NOHRSC, as they distribute the data for operational users.

AMSR-E Slow Rotation Data is a research product distributed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that have been obtained with a slow rotation of AMSR-E's antenna at 2 rotations per minute (rpm).

Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) is the standard data format for all NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) data products.It is also known as HDF-EOS.