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Sea Ice Data Access and Tools

NASA has sea ice datasets that help researchers characterize the presence and extent of ice in the ocean. Access a range of data and data tools such as AppEEARS, Worldview, and Giovanni to make the most of sea ice data.

Sea Ice Datasets

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Dataset Platforms Instruments Temporal Extent Location Keywords Data Format
IceBridge Merged Photon Counting Lidar/Profiler L4 Surface Slope and Elevations V001 BT-67 Sigma Space Lidar 2010-11-25 to 2012-12-04 ANTARCTICA HDF5
IceBridge Narrow Swath ATM L1B Elevation and Return Strength with Waveforms V001 C-130, DC-8, G-V, HU-25C, P-3B ATM 2017-10-29 to 2019-11-20 ANTARCTICA, GREENLAND, ARCTIC HDF5
IceBridge Narrow Swath ATM L1B Qfit Elevation and Return Strength V001 DC-8, P-3B ATM 2011-03-16 to 2012-11-08 ARCTIC, ANTARCTICA, GREENLAND Binary
IceBridge PARIS L2 Ice Thickness V001 AIRCRAFT, P-3B RADAR ECHO SOUNDERS, PARIS 2009-04-01 to 2009-05-02 GREENLAND ASCII
IceBridge Snow Radar L1B Geolocated Radar Echo Strength Profiles V002 C-130, DC-8, DHC-3, G-V, P-3B, WP-3D ORION SNOW RADAR 2009-03-31 to 2021-05-13 ARCTIC, ANTARCTICA, GREENLAND netCDF-4, XML, JPEG
IceBridge-Related DMS-Derived L4 Sea Ice Surface Cover Classification Images V001 B-200, C-130, DC-8, HU-25A, HU-25C, P-3B, WP-3D ORION DMS 2010-03-23 to 2018-04-16 ARCTIC, GREENLAND TIFF
IceBridge-Related DMS-Derived L4 Sea Ice Surface Cover Classification Orthorectified Images V001 C-130, DC-8, HU-25A, HU-25C, P-3B, WP-3D ORION DMS 2010-03-23 to 2017-07-25 GREENLAND, ARCTIC TIFF
ICESat L4 Seasonal Gridded Sea Ice Thickness V001 ICESat GLAS 2003-02-20 to 2008-03-21 ARCTIC OCEAN netCDF-4, PNG
ICESat-2 and CryoSat-2 L4 Monthly Arctic Snow Depth and Sea Ice Thickness V001 CRYOSAT-2, ICESat-2 SIRAL, ATLAS 2018-10-01 to 2021-04-30 ARCTIC netCDF-4
ICESat-2 Derived Sea Ice Melt Pond Characteristics from the Density-Dimension Algorithm V003 ICESat-2 ATLAS 2020-06-04 to 2020-08-28 ARCTIC ASCII, PNG
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Featured Sea Ice Observation Method: ICESat-2
NASA's Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) carries a laser altimeter scientists use to measure the elevation of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, and more in unprecedented, 3-D detail. The satellite also measures heights across Earth's temperate and tropical regions, and takes stock of the vegetation in forests worldwide.
Learn More About ICESat-2
six vertical bands showing various satellite images

New Low Latency ICESat-2 Datasets

The five new datasets are the result of a joint effort by NASA’s Satellite Needs Working Group Management Office (SNWG MO), ICESat-2 team, and Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE).
3 MIN READ

Sea Ice Data Tools

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Tool Description Services
OpenAltimetry OpenAltimetry is a map-based visualization tool for exploring surface elevation data across Earth over time. Analysis, Search and Discovery, Visualization
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