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NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 1.0

Published by DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: April 12, 2026 at 09:15 PM | Dataset Last Updated: January 01, 2011 at 12:00 AM
This dataset version has been superseded by version 2. This data set provides a Climate Data Record (CDR) of passive microwave sea ice concentration based on the recommendations from the National Research Council (NRC) (2004). It is produced from gridded brightness temperatures from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) series of Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) passive microwave radiometers: F-8, F-11, and F-13. The NOAA/NSIDC CDR sea ice concentrations provide a consistent, daily time series of sea ice concentrations from 09 July 1987 through 31 December 2007. The NOAA/NSIDC CDR sea ice concentrations are an estimate of the fraction of ocean area covered by sea ice that is produced by combining concentration estimates created using two algorithms developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC): the NASA Team algorithm (Cavalieri et al., 1984) and the Bootstrap algorithm (Comiso, 1986). The individual algorithms are processed and combined at NSIDC using brightness temperature data from Remote Sensing Systems, Inc. (RSS). The data are gridded on the NSIDC polar stereographic grid with 25 x 25 km grid cells and are available in netCDF file format. Each daily file includes four different sea ice concentration variables: a variable with the primary CDR sea ice concentrations created by NSIDC and three variables with sea ice concentrations created by Goddard. The three Goddard-processed sea ice concentrations are Goddard NASA Team algorithm sea ice concentrations, Goddard Bootstrap sea ice concentrations, and a merged version of the Goddard NASA Team/Bootstrap algorithm sea ice concentrations. Variables containing standard deviation, quality flags, and projection information are also included in the netCDF file. The three Goddard-produced sea ice concentrations are included in the data files for a number of reasons. The merged Goddard NASA Team/Bootstrap sea ice concentrations are an ancillary data set that is analogous to the NSIDC CDR data but that adds late 1978 through mid 1986 data to the record. A different instrument, the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), was the source for the brightness temperatures from this period. Sea ice concentrations from the extended period are not part of the primary NSIDC-produced CDR record because complete documentation of the SMMR brightness temperature processing method is not available. The separate Goddard NASA Team and Bootstrap sea ice concentrations are provided for reference. The data are available via FTP.

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Earth Science > Cryosphere > Sea Ice > Sea Ice Concentration Earth Science > Oceans > Sea Ice > Sea Ice Concentration Earth Science > Smmr > Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer Earth Science > Ssm/I > Special Sensor Microwave/Imager NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) Program Satellite Earth Science > Dmsp 5d-2/F11 > Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F11 Earth Science > Dmsp 5d-2/F13 > Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F13

Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
contactPoint 
                                            {
  "fn": "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:sea_ice_concentration_contacts@noaa.gov"
}
describedByType application/octet-steam
description This dataset version has been superseded by version 2. This data set provides a Climate Data Record (CDR) of passive microwave sea ice concentration based on the recommendations from the National Research Council (NRC) (2004). It is produced from gridded brightness temperatures from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) series of Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) passive microwave radiometers: F-8, F-11, and F-13. The NOAA/NSIDC CDR sea ice concentrations provide a consistent, daily time series of sea ice concentrations from 09 July 1987 through 31 December 2007. The NOAA/NSIDC CDR sea ice concentrations are an estimate of the fraction of ocean area covered by sea ice that is produced by combining concentration estimates created using two algorithms developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC): the NASA Team algorithm (Cavalieri et al., 1984) and the Bootstrap algorithm (Comiso, 1986). The individual algorithms are processed and combined at NSIDC using brightness temperature data from Remote Sensing Systems, Inc. (RSS). The data are gridded on the NSIDC polar stereographic grid with 25 x 25 km grid cells and are available in netCDF file format. Each daily file includes four different sea ice concentration variables: a variable with the primary CDR sea ice concentrations created by NSIDC and three variables with sea ice concentrations created by Goddard. The three Goddard-processed sea ice concentrations are Goddard NASA Team algorithm sea ice concentrations, Goddard Bootstrap sea ice concentrations, and a merged version of the Goddard NASA Team/Bootstrap algorithm sea ice concentrations. Variables containing standard deviation, quality flags, and projection information are also included in the netCDF file. The three Goddard-produced sea ice concentrations are included in the data files for a number of reasons. The merged Goddard NASA Team/Bootstrap sea ice concentrations are an ancillary data set that is analogous to the NSIDC CDR data but that adds late 1978 through mid 1986 data to the record. A different instrument, the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), was the source for the brightness temperatures from this period. Sea ice concentrations from the extended period are not part of the primary NSIDC-produced CDR record because complete documentation of the SMMR brightness temperature processing method is not available. The separate Goddard NASA Team and Bootstrap sea ice concentrations are provided for reference. The data are available via FTP.
distribution 
                                            [
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NCEI Dataset Landing Page",
    "accessURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/metadata/geoportal/rest/metadata/item/gov.noaa.ncdc:C00805/html",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Landing page for the dataset.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NSIDC FTP server",
    "accessURL": "ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/DATASETS/NOAA/G02202/",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Data access for the CDR product via FTP.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "CDR Documentation",
    "format": "PDF",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "description": "Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for the CDR product.",
    "downloadURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/sds/cdr/docs/sea-ice-concentration-catbd.pdf",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords",
    "accessURL": "https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/gcmd/global-change-master-directory-gcmd-keywords",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Operational Climate Data Records in the NOAA CDR Program",
    "accessURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/climate-data-records",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Access to the published CDR data, source code, and documentation.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  }
]
identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/NESDIS/ncei/aim/iso/xml/C00805.xml
issued 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
                                            [
  "Earth Science > Cryosphere > Sea Ice > Sea Ice Concentration",
  "Earth Science > Oceans > Sea Ice > Sea Ice Concentration",
  "Earth Science > Smmr > Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer",
  "Earth Science > Ssm/I > Special Sensor Microwave/Imager",
  "NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) Program",
  "Satellite",
  "Earth Science > Dmsp 5d-2/F11 > Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F11",
  "Earth Science > Dmsp 5d-2/F13 > Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F13",
  "Earth Science > Dmsp 5d-2/F8 > Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F8",
  "Earth Science > Dmsp > Defense Meteorological Satellite Program",
  "Earth Science > Nimbus-7",
  "Continent > Antarctica",
  "Geographic Region > Arctic",
  "Geographic Region > Polar",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC > National Climatic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce"
]
landingPage https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/climate-data-records
language 
                                            []
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
                                            {
  "name": "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
rights otherRestrictions
spatial 180.0,-90.0,-180.0,90.0
temporal 1978-10-26T00:00:00+00:00/2007-12-31T00:00:00+00:00
title NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 1.0

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