VIIRS - Sea Ice Concentration, Ice Thickness, Ice Surface Temperature

VIIRS Sea Ice Concentration, Sea Ice Thickness and Ice Surface Temperature NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch Level 3, Daily and daily 4-day rolling merged, mapped composites in both polar stereographic projections and CW sector mapped for Northern and Southern hemispheres.

    Data Access
    Metadata
    THREDDS
    ERDDAP
    Sample Filenames

    VXSCCW_B2019203_C244_011341-233757_NP06_edgemask_IceConc.nc
    VXSCCW_B2019203_C103_011341-232508_UZ00_edgemask_IceConc.nc
    VXSACW_B2019203_C246_002354-224644_SP06_edgemask_IceThickness.nc
    VXSCCW_B2019203_C102_003351-224644_VW00_edgemask_IceSrfTemp.nc
    VXSCCW is
    B2019201 is Year and day of year as BYYYYdoy
    C### is number of granules in composite
    Series of 6-digit numbers are the range of granule start times included in composite
    UZ00, for example, is sector indicator (see Description tab for sector map) for equatorial projection
    NP06 or SP06 is indicator for polar stereographic projection from the 6 sectors regions (North or South)
    edgemask
    Product DescriptionIceConc = Ice Concentration
    IceThickness = Ice Thickness
    IceSrfTemp = Ice Surface Temperature

    Polar stereographic projection of polar sea ice concentrations over the Arctic Ocean and Alaska

    VIIRS Sea Ice Concentration, Sea Ice Thickness and Ice Surface Temperature, NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch/PolarWatch Level 3, Daily and daily 4-day rolling merge, mapped composites are nominally at native spatial resolution (~750 m), clear sky only.  

    • North Polar (NP06) and South Polar (SP06) are Polar Stereographic projected daily composites
    • Six Northern hemisphere  and six Southern hemisphere high latitude CoastWatch VIIRS sectors  (see sector map below)
      • North Sectors:  UZ, VZ, WZ, XZ, YZ, ZZ
      • South Sectors:  UW, VW, WU, XW, YW, ZW

    CoastWatch Regional Sectors

    Map of CoastWatch regional sectors

    Data Provider:  JPSS Center for Satellite Applications and Research Cryosphere Team

    STAR Cryosphere Environmental Data Record Team Lead:  Jeff Key

    Sea ice age is defined as the time that has passed since the formation of the surface layer of an ice covered region of the ocean.

    Sea ice concentration is the fraction of a horizontal cell covered by ice.

    NDE Enterprise Ice Age/Thickness Algorithm

    One-dimensional Thermodynamic Ice Model (OTIM):

    • Based on the surface energy budget at thermo-equilibrium state
    • Independent of historical records for ice thickness and age estimation
    • Capable of retrieving daytime and nighttime sea and lake ice thickness under both clear and cloudy sky conditions

    IDPS Sea Ice Concentration is an intermediate product (IP)

    • Algorithm computes ice fractions based on ice and water tie points determined from VIIRS I1 (0.64 µm) and I2 (0.865 µm) reflectance and surface temperature from the VIIRS Surface Temperature IP

    Enterprise Sea Ice Concentration Algorithm

    • Use threshold tests to detect possible ice cover: Daytime and Nighttime
    • Use a tie-point algorithm to derive reflectance (temperature) for pure ice pixel, and then calculate ice concentration

    https://stratus.ssec.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/amsr2snow_prod?seaice

    Temporal Coverage

    Daily and
    Daily 4-day rolling merge

    Product Families
    Polar Sea Ice
    Measurements
    Sea Ice Concentration
    Sea Ice Temperature
    Sea Ice Thickness
    Visible And Near IR Radiometry
    Processing Levels
    Level 3
    Latency Groups
    0 Hours <= 24 Hours (NRT)
    Latency Details

    about 12 to 24 h

    Spatial Resolution Groups
    100m < 2km
    Spatial Resolution Details

    Nominal 750 m

    Data Providers
    NOAA
    NESDIS
    OSPO
    STAR
    CoastWatch
    Cryosphere Team
    Spatial Coverage

    CoastWatch Global Sectors

    Description

    The 24 sectors identified for file naming convention when referring to VIIRS data. 

    Image
    Map showing grid of CoastWatch VIIRS Sectors

    Polar (Artic/Antarctic)

    Description

    60N - 90N

    60S - 90S

    NOAA

    Description

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21

    Platform Type
    Low Earth Orbit Satellite (LEO)
    Instruments
    Organizations
    NASA
    NOAA
    Orbital Altitude
    834 km
    Equatorial Crossing Times
    13:25 asc

    SNPP

    Description

    Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership

    Platform Type
    Low Earth Orbit Satellite (LEO)
    Instruments
    Organizations
    NASA
    NOAA
    Orbital Altitude
    833 km
    Equatorial Crossing Times
    13:25 asc

    VIIRS

    Description

    Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite

    Platforms
    Instrument Types
    Imager
    Organizations
    NASA

    Wang, Xuanji  and Key, Jeffrey R., NOAA/NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research, Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document:  ABI and VIIRS Ice Thickness and Age, Version 1.0, 17 December 2015.

    Liu, Yinghui and Key, Jeffrey R.,, NOAA/NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research, Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document:  Ice Surface Temperature, Ice Concentration, and Ice Cover, Version 1.0, 17 December 2015.

    EDR Long Term-Monitoring

    ** When you use our data, please reference the product citation (if available) and acknowledge "NOAA CoastWatch" **