Data Announcements

The Antarctic Glaciological Data Center (AGDC) at NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of a new data set, Digital Imaging for Siple Dome Ice Core Analysis, Antarctica. The data set contains high-resolution images of sections from the Siple Dome A ice core, in TIFF and JPG formats.

As of 01 September 2009, the processing stream for the Near-Real-Time DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Pathfinder Daily EASE-Grid Brightness Temperatures data set has been switched from the SSM/I sensor on board the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 satellite to the SSMIS sensor on the DMSP-F17 satellite.

In August, Dutch magazine, Change, interviewed Allaina Wallace, NSIDC Analog Archivist and Glacier Photograph Collection curator. The article focuses on the NSIDC Glacier Photograph Collection and advertises the online collection to a wider audience. Change is a Dutch magazine dedicated to making climate knowledge accessible. The full article is available, in Dutch, on the Change Web site.

As of 28 August 2009, the processing stream for the Near-Real-Time Ice and Snow Extent (NISE) product has been switched from the SSM/I sensor on board the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 satellite to the SSMIS sensor on the DMSP-F17 satellite.

The Antarctic Glaciological Data Center at NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of new data sets, including Late Holocene Climate Variability, Dry Valleys, Antarctica, Nitrogen and Oxygen Gas Isotopes in the Siple Dome and Byrd Ice Cores, Antarctica, and Gases in Firn Air and Shallow Ice at the WAIS Drilling Site, Antarctica.

Due to an error with the "Snow Depth on Sea Ice" parameter, users should not work with the Northern Hemisphere "Snow Depth on Sea Ice" parameter in data using the V11 algorithm.

A film documenting the activities that occurred on Drifting Station Alpha in the Arctic Ocean during the International Geophysical Year, 1957 to 1958, has been released. The film is narrated by project leader, Norbert Untersteiner, and chronicles the life of the team as they built their camp and set up experiments. For more information on this DVD or to order a copy, see the International Geophysical Year, 1957 – 1958: Drifting Station Alpha Catalog page.

NSIDC is pleased to announce that reprocessing is complete for AMSR-E/Aqua L2A Global Swath Spatially-Resampled Brightness Temperatures (AE_L2A) and AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L2B Surface Soil Moisture, Interpretive Parms, and QC EASE-Grids (AE_Land) data products.

All AMSR-E Level-3 Land, Sea Ice, and Snow data from 19 June 2002, the beginning of the AMSR-E mission, through the present now use the most up-to-date algorithm.

The Glacier Photograph Collection has a new Search and Order Web interface. A complete redesign of the old interface has been implemented as well changes to the overall appearance of the Web site.

The AMSR-E/Aqua Daily EASE-Grid Brightness Temperatures and AMSR-E/Aqua Daily Global Quarter-Degree Gridded Brightness Temperatures data sets have been updated.

Data are now available through 31 December 2008 for the Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I Passive Microwave data set.

The DMSP SSM/I Daily Polar Gridded Brightness Temperatures data set has been updated through 31 December 2008. With this update, a new version of the source data was used in the gridded brightness temperature processing.

On 17 July 2009, the MODIS/Terra Snow Cover Daily L3 Global 500m Grid (MOD10A1) Version 4 (V004) snow data product will be removed from NSIDC's archive.

In the 1990s, the Medea program began a collection of classified reconnaissance imagery of sea ice and other sites of interest to environmental scientists. Acquisition of these images has continued, with some changes and interruptions, to this day. Thousands of images are archived by the USGS Global Fiducial Library (GFL) and are now being made publicly available. Sea ice images are among the first of the classified, 1-meter resolution visible band images to be publicly released by the GFL.

NOAA@NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of a new data set: Recurring Spring Leads and Landfast Ice in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, 1993-2004.

Information and statistics on 157 glaciers from the Huasco Catchment in Chile have been added to the World Glacier Inventory.

NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of Validated 11 (V11-Stage 1) AMSR-E Level-3 sea ice products as of 29 May 2009. The algorithm for V11 corrected an error introduced in the V10 algorithm which caused the snow depth on sea ice parameter to be overestimated by a factor of approximately two.

NSIDC has officially switched its processing stream for near-real-time passive microwave brightness temperatures from the SSM/I sensor on board the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 satellite to the SSMIS sensor on the DMSP-F17 satellite. This change in the processing stream was necessary due to a failing recorder on F13.

Version 4 MODIS snow and sea ice data products have been removed from NSIDC's archive. NSIDC will retain a small amount of MODIS Version 4 data from each data set for use in comparisons with other data versions. This is referred to as a golden month.