MASIE-NH Daily Image Viewer

MASIE-NH stands for the Multisensor Analyzed Sea Ice Extent – Northern Hemisphere. It is similar to the Sea Ice Index (SII) product in that it is easy to use and gives a graphical view of ice extent in various formats. However, it relies more on visible imagery than on passive microwave data, so the ice edge position will generally be more accurate than that of the Sea Ice Index. The input is the daily 4-km sea ice component of the  U.S. National Ice Center (USNIC) Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) product which is available separately at the USNIC IMS Products Web page and IMS Daily Northern Hemisphere Snow and Ice Analysis at 4 km and 24 km Resolution data set at NSIDC. MASIE sea ice products are developed from NIC data with support from the U.S. Navy and from NOAA. MASIE is hosted by NOAA@NSIDC.

For complete information about MASIE-NH, see the product documentation.

Reason for Developing MASIE

The Sea Ice Index ice extent is widely used, but the edge position can be off by 10s or in some cases 100s of kilometers. NIC produces a better ice edge product, but it does not reach the same audience as the Sea Ice Index. Solution: Work with NIC on a new product.

Anticipated Users

• Scientists interpreting other data acquired near the ice edge
• Modelers
• Researchers seeking to quantify the error in the passive microwave product
• The Arctic System Reanalysis project - which requires higher-resolution daily sea ice fields
• National agencies
• Anyone interested in where the ice is today

Give Your Input - Help Us Improve MASIE

MASIE is a prototype collaborative product of NIC and NSIDC. We would like your input, so we can make MASIE better. Please send comments to NSIDC User Services. We are especially interested in hearing answers to these questions:

General Questions:

1. What are the goals you would have in mind when using the MASIE website?
2. What is your interest in Arctic sea ice data?
3. Exactly how would you use the data you would expect to find on this website?

Research Scientist/Science Support Questions:

1. What research or applications are you working on that are related to Arctic sea ice?
2. What Web sites or applications do you use in your Arctic sea ice research or support work?
3. MASIE will show the sea ice edge. Edge can have many definitions, for example, limit of all known ice, the 15 percent concentration contour, and others. What definition would produce an edge most useful to you?