Data Announcement
  • Sea ice

Sea Ice Index FTP Directory Structure Changing

NOAA@NSIDC would like to alert users of an upcoming update to the Sea Ice Index FTP directory structure and file names. The current FTP directory (ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/) contains monthly data and images directly under the top-level directory with one subdirectory for each month. The monthly subdirectories house both northern and southern hemisphere data files and images within them (Figure 1). Beginning 18 January 2017, all Sea Ice Index data will be organized by hemisphere at the top level, then parsed by temporal resolution, daily or monthly, and organized further by file type: tabulated data, browse images, or Shapefiles (Figure 2). In addition, the product is being versioned up to version 2.1, so all file names will have v2.1 in the file name instead of v2 only. If you have any scripts that access Sea Ice Index data, you will need to update them with the new file names and new FTP directory tree being introduced on 18 January 2017 to continue accessing the Sea Ice Index product. The following major changes should be noted:

  1. All monthly images are moving and the trend images have a new file name.
    For example, the current image file path:
    ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/Apr/N_201504_extn_v2.png
    
    will be moved to:
    ~/G02135/north/monthly/images/04_Apr/N_201504_extn_v2.1.png 
    
    and the current trend image file path:
    ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/Apr/N_04_trnd_v2.png
    
    will be moved and renamed to:
    ~/G02135/north/monthly/images/04_Apr/N_04_trend_v2.1.png
  2. The monthly data files are moving and the format will change from 
    a space delimited .txt file to a comma separated .csv file.
    For example, the current data file path:
    ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/Apr/N_04_area_v2.txt 
    
    will be moved and renamed to:
    ~/G02135/north/monthly/data/N_04_extent_v2.1.csv
  3. The near-real-time and final daily data will be within a single 
    file but the directory structure will remain the same.
    For example, the data files currently at:
    ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/north/daily
    /data/NH_seaice_extent_nrt_v2.csv
    and
    ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/north/daily
    /data/NH_seaice_extent_final_v2.csv 
    
    will be combined to form:
    ~/G02135/north/daily/data/N_seaice_extent_v2.1.csv
  4. Daily climatology data files are also being renamed.
    For example, the current data file path:
    ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/north
    /daily/data/NH_seaice_extent_climatology_1981-2010_v2.csv
    
    will be renamed to:
    ~/G02135/north/daily/data/N_seaice_extent_climatology_1981-2010_v2.1.csv
  5. Monthly shapefiles are moving.
    For example, the current shapefile path:
    ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/shapefiles
    /Apr/shp_extent/extent_N_201504_polygon_v2.zip
    
    will be moved to:
    ~/G02135/norht/monthly/shapefiles/shp_extent/04_Apr/
    extent_N_201504_polygon_v2.1.zip 
    
    and the current shapefile path:
    ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135
    /shapefiles/Apr/shp_median/median_N_04_1981_2010_polyline_v2.zip
    
    will be moved to:
    ~/G02135/norht/monthly/shapefiles /shp_median/
    median_N_04_1981_2010_polyline_v2.1.zip
Current directory structure
Figure 1. Current FTP Directory Structure
New directory structure
Figure 2. New FTP Directory Structure