This data set reports sea ice surface temperature (IST) derived from radiance data acquired by the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). Following the approach used by MODIS, the algorithm converts VIIRS calibrated radiances into brightness temperature and computes IST using a split-window technique.
VIIRS flies on board the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite.
As of April 2025, this data set is retired and no longer available for download. Data from the "Golden Month," a 40-day window from 29 August, 2018 to 7 October, 2018 are available by special request from NSIDC User Services.
We recommend using
VIIRS/NPP Ice Surface Temperature 6-Min L2 Swath 750m, Version 2 as an alternative.
Temporal Coverage:
- 19 January 2012 to 17 June 2024
Spatial Reference System(s):
Not Specified