NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC)

By Laura Naranjo

In 1972, astronauts aboard the NASA Apollo 17 spacecraft snapped the first full-view image of Earth. The iconic photo was later dubbed “The Blue Marble.” Since then, NASA has sent an array of missions into space aimed at understanding life on Earth. Massive streams of data are now available, documenting everything from drought to hurricanes to plankton blooms. With such a wealth of data, how can scientists get a quicker look at what’s happening on Earth? Downloading and mapping data can be a very technical and time-consuming project.

NASA IceBridge POS/AV L1B Corrected Position and Attitude Data for the 2016 Greenland campaign are now available from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). This data set contains georeferencing data from the Applanix 510 POS AV system flown with the Digital Mapping System (DMS) and other instruments over Greenland and Antarctica.

Data set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/XILTNL9F1HCR

NASA IceBridge MCoRDS L2 Ice Thickness data for 2015 Greenland are now available from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). This data set contains depth sounder measurements of elevation, surface, bottom, and thickness for Greenland and Antarctica taken from the Multichannel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS).

Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/GDQ0CUCVTE2Q.

NASA IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery for 2016 Greenland are now available from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). This data set contains level zero imagery taken from the Digital Mapping System (DMS) over Antarctica and Greenland.

Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/UMFN22VHGGMH

The NASA IceBridge ATM L4 Surface Elevation Rate of Change data set now includes measurements based on 2015 data. This data set contains surface elevation rate of change measurements derived from IceBridge and Pre-IceBridge Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) widescan elevation measurements data (ILATM1B) for Arctic and Antarctica missions flown under NASA's Operation IceBridge (OIB) and Arctic Ice Mapping (AIM) projects.

Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/BCW6CI3TXOCY

NASA IceBridge LVIS L1B Geolocated Return Energy Waveforms data for 2015 Antarctica are now available from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC).

This data set contains laser altimetry return energy waveform measurements taken from NASA's Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) over areas including Greenland and Antarctica.

Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/RDT1MZVS0VG9

NASA IceBridge Sea Ice Freeboard, Snow Depth, and Thickness Quick Look data for the 19 April 2016 to 04 May 2016 are now available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). This data set is an evaluation product containing derived geophysical data products retrieved over the Arctic sea ice cover from 2012 to 2016 using the IceBridge Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM), Snow Radar, Digital Mapping System (DMS), and KT19 pyrometer.

NASA IceBridge POS/AV L1B Corrected Position and Attitude Data for the Fall 2015 Arctic campaign and the 2015 Antarctica campaign are now available from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). This data set contains georeferencing data from the Applanix 510 POS AV system flown with the Digital Mapping System (DMS) and other instruments over Greenland and Antarctica.

Data set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/XILTNL9F1HCR

The NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) has completed investigating calibration of data from the DMSP-F18 SSMIS sensor for the Near-Real-Time DMSP SSMIS Daily Polar Gridded Sea Ice Concentration data set. The tie points used with F17 SSMIS data provided the best match in sea ice extent, so no adjustment to the tie points were made for F18. The average difference between F17- and F18-derived sea ice extents were approximately 20,000 sq km.

The NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) has updated the Near-Real-Time DMSP SSMIS Daily Polar Gridded Brightness Temperatures data set so that it now solely provides data from the DMSP-F18 SSMIS sensor beginning with 01 April 2016 due to the compromised data integrity of the DMSP-F17 SSMIS vertically polarized 37 GHz channel (37V). Data before 01 April 2016 are still from the F17 SSMIS.

NASA IceBridge DMS L1B Geolocated and Orthorectified Images for the Summer/Fall 2015 Arctic and Greenland campaigns are now available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). This data set contains Level-1B imagery taken from the Digital Mapping System (DMS) over Greenland and Antarctica.

Data set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/OZ6VNOPMPRJ0

NASA IceBridge LVIS L2 Geolocated Surface Elevation Product data for 2015 Antarctica are now available from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC).

This data set contains surface elevation measurements from NASA's Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) over areas including Greenland and Antarctica.

Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/OIKFGJNBM6OO

NASA IceBridge ATM L2 Icessn Elevation, Slope, and Roughness data for September and October 2015 Arctic are now available from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC).

This data set contains resampled and smoothed elevation measurements of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, and Greenland, Antarctic Peninsula, and West Antarctic region land ice surface acquired using the NASA Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) instrumentation.

NASA IceBridge ATM L1B Elevation and Return Strength data for September and October 2015 Arctic are now available from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC).

This data set contains spot elevation measurements of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, and Greenland, Antarctic Peninsula, and West Antarctic region ice surface acquired using the NASA Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) instrumentation.

Four more Version 6 MODIS snow cover data sets are now available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC):

NASA IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery for Greenland from 15 September 2015 to 22 October 2015, and for Antarctica from 10 September 2015 to 01 November 2015 are now available from the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC). This data set contains level zero imagery taken from the Digital Mapping System (DMS) over Antarctica and Greenland.

Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/UMFN22VHGGMH

The Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data data set available at the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) has been updated through 31 December 2015.

Data Set DOI: https://doi.org/10.5067/8GQ8LZQVL0VL

Due to the compromised data integrity with the DMSP F17 vertically polarized 37 GHz channel (37V) of the Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounder (SSMIS), which is a primary channel used for sea ice development, NSIDC is halting production of the Near-Real-Time DMSP SSMIS Daily Polar Gridded Sea Ice Concentrations F17 data and switching over to the F18 satellite, starting with 1 April 2016 data. However, NSIDC is still working on the calibration of the F18 data so temporarily the F18 data will be uncalibrated and using F17 tie points.

Due to the compromised data integrity with the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F-17 vertically polarized 37 GHz channel (37V) of the Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounder (SSMIS), NSIDC will be distributing data from both the F17 and F18 satellites, starting with 1 April 2016 data. Using data from the 37V channel from the F17 satellite is not recommended. Instead, you should use data from the F18 satellite’s 37V channel.