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Description

This data set (AE_SI12) reports average daily, 12.5 km resolution, horizontally and vertically polarized brightness temperatures (Tb) at four frequencies—18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz, 36.5 GHz and 89.0 GHz. It also reports: daily sea ice concentrations derived with the Enhanced NASA Team (NT2) algorithm; daily sea ice concentration differences between NT2 and the legacy AMSR Basic Bootstrap Algorithm (BBA); and daily snow depths over sea ice. Data are provided on Northern and Southern Hemisphere, polar stereographic grids.

These data are derived from observations acquired by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E).

Version Description

Changes for this version include: * Uses Version 4 of the AMSR-E/Aqua L2A Global Swath Spatially-Resampled Brightness Temperatures as input; * NH water filter parameters adjusted to better characterize open water cluster during cold months. This change eliminates ~60% of NH false ice identifications in open ocean during Oct. to May. * Removed sea ice concentration difference flagging scheme, which in previous versions indicated explicitly whether BBA and/or NT2 values were missing. * Data file format changed to HDF-EOS5.

Product Summary

Platforms
Aqua
Instruments
AMSR-E
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: 30.98 E: 180 W: -180

,

N: -39.23 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
12.5 Kilometers x 12.5 Kilometers
Spatial Reference System(s)
Multiple EPSG codes (see User Guide)
Location
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE ,
POLAR ,
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2002-06-01 to 2011-10-04
Temporal Resolution
1 Day
Concept ID
C3628319333-NSIDC_CPRD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
3381
Processing Level
3
Published
Science Keywords
Brightness Temperature ,
Sea Ice Concentration ,
Snow Depth

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Markus, T., Comiso, J. C., Boisvert, L., & Meier, W. N. (2025). AMSR-E/Aqua Daily L3 12.5 km Brightness Temperature, Sea Ice Concentration, & Snow Depth Polar Grids, Version 4 [Dataset]. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/J00N1DZZHGW9 Date Accessed: 2026-08-18

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