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

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2023

This dataset version has been superseded by version 2.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.

Access & Use Information

License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Date June 23, 2023
Metadata Created Date October 28, 2022
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2023
Reference Date(s) January 1, 2011 (publication)
Frequency Of Update notPlanned

Metadata Source

Harvested from ncdc

Graphic Preview

Sea Ice Convcentration over the Northern Hemisphere.

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date June 23, 2023
Metadata Created Date October 28, 2022
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2023
Reference Date(s) January 1, 2011 (publication)
Responsible Party DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce (Point of Contact)
Contact Email
Guid gov.noaa.ncdc:C00805
Access Constraints Distribution liability: NOAA and NCEI make no warranty, expressed or implied, regarding these data, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. NOAA and NCEI cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in these data. If appropriate, NCEI can only certify that the data it distributes are an authentic copy of the records that were accepted for inclusion in the NCEI archives., Use liability: NOAA and NCEI cannot provide any warranty as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of furnished data. Users assume responsibility to determine the usability of these data. The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose.
Bbox East Long 180
Bbox North Lat 90
Bbox South Lat -90
Bbox West Long -180
Coupled Resource
Frequency Of Update notPlanned
Graphic Preview Description Sea Ice Convcentration over the Northern Hemisphere.
Graphic Preview File https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/metadata/images/C00808_Sea-Ice-Concentration-CDR-v2.jpg
Graphic Preview Type JPEG
Harvest Object Id 6d8ffff5-cfb7-479c-aa42-128781ce6799
Harvest Source Id 2cb3ef77-1683-4c2a-9119-dc65e50917c6
Harvest Source Title ncdc
Licence
Lineage See the CDR Data Flow Diagram: http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/sds/cdr/docs/sea-ice-concentration-flowchart.pdf
Metadata Language eng; USA
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-180.0, -90.0], [180.0, -90.0], [180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, -90.0]]]}
Progress completed
Spatial Data Service Type
Spatial Reference System
Spatial Harvester True
Temporal Extent Begin 1978-10-26
Temporal Extent End 2007-12-31

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