The Data Access Portal has information in 3 columns. An outline of the content in these columns is provided above. When first entering the search interface, all potential datasets are listed. Datasets are indicated in the map and results tabulation elements which are located in the middle column. The order of results can be modified using the "Sort by" option in the left column. On top of this column is normally relevant guidance information to user presented as collapsible elements.
If the user want to refine the search, this can be done by constraining the bounding box search. This is done in the map - the listing of datasets is automatically updated. Date constraints can be added in the left column. For these to take effect, the user has to push the button marked search. In the left column it is also possible to specific text elements to search for in the datasets. Again pushing the button marked "Search" is necessary for these to take action. Complex search patterns can be constructed by changing the operators used in the text field and prefixing words with '+' and '-' to indicate whether they have to be present or should not be present in the results.
Other elements indicated in the left and right columns are facet searches, i.e. these are keywords that are found in the datasets and all datasets that contain these specific keywords in the appropriate metadata elements are listed together. Further refinement can be done using full text, date or bounding box constraints. Individuals, organisations and data centres involved in generating or curating the datasets are listed in the facets in the right column.
Citation of data and service
If you use data retrieved through this portal, please acknowledge the efforts of the data portal and the data centres contributing.
The information required to properly cite a dataset is normally provided in the discovery metadata the datasets.
author,
title,
year of publication,
publisher (for data this is often the archive where it is housed),
edition or version,
access information (a URL or persistent identifier, e.g. DOI if provided)
The AMSR Level-2A product (AA_L2A) contains brightness temperatures at 6.9 GHz, 10.65 GHz, 18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz, 36.5 GHz, 89.0 GHz, 50.3 GHz, and 52.8GHz. Data are resampled to be spatially consistent except for the 50.3GHz and 52.8GHz data, and therefore are available at a variety of resolutions that correspond to the footprint sizes of the observations such as 56 km, 38 km, 24 km, 21 km, 12 km, and 5.4 km, respectively.
Notice to Data Users: The documentation for this data set was provided solely by the Principal Investigator(s) and was not further developed, thoroughly reviewed, or edited by NSIDC. Thus, support for this data set may be limited.
This data set contains multispectral radiometer reflectance data collected over the Soil Moisture Experiment 2005 (SMEX05) area of Iowa, USA.
This data set is comprised of browse images acquired over the regional study areas of Alabama, Georgia, and Oklahoma USA as part of the 2003 Soil Moisture Experiment (SMEX03).
The Declassified Intelligence Satellite Photographs (DISP) Yearly Satellite Photographic Mosaics of Greenland are composites of black-and-white photographs of Greenland taken from American satellites in 1962 and 1963. The mosaics provide details of ice sheet morphology, glaciers, rock outcrops, the coastline, and other features. The image mosaics are useful for comparing the extent and internal configuration of the Greenland ice sheet with current satellite data. The data set consists of one tagged image file (.TIF) for each year.
The files are large-- the 1962 mosaic image dimensions are 17,092 by 28,484 pixels and the file size is 464.3 MB. The 1963 image dimensions are 17,792 by 27,805 pixels and the file size is 471.8 MB.
This data set is part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Cores (WAISCORES) project, an NSF-funded project to understand the influence of the West Antarctic ice sheet on climate and sea level change. WAISCORES researchers acquired and analyzed ice core samples from the Siple Dome, in the Siple Coast region, West Antarctica. This data set includes a timescale record for the Siple Dome ice core.
The Level-3 daily product (AE_DyOcn), weekly product (AE_WkOcn), and monthly product (AE_MoOcn) include SST, near-surface wind speed, columnar water vapor, and columnar cloud liquid water over oceans in a 0.25 degree by 0.25 degree grid, generated from AE_Ocean.
The Near-real-time Ice and Snow Extent (NISE) data set provides daily, global maps of sea ice concentrations and snow extent. These data are not suitable for time series, anomalies, or trends analyses. They are meant to provide a best estimate of current ice and snow conditions based on information and algorithms available at the time the data are acquired. Near-real-time products are not intended for operational use in assessing sea ice conditions for navigation.
This NISE Version 5 product contains DMSP-F18, SSMIS-derived sea ice concentrations and snow extents derived from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) aboard the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F18 satellite. For DMSP-F16, SSMIS-derived data, see <a href="https://doi.org/10.5067/JAQDJKPX0S60"> NISE Version 3</a>. For DMSP-F17, SSMIS-derived data, see <a href="https://nsidc.org/data/nise/versions/4"> NISE Version 4</a>. For the older, DMSP-F13, Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI) derived data, see <a href="https://doi.org/10.5067/4FSODMDM1WEJ">NISE Version 2</a>.
Notice to Data Users: The documentation for this data set was provided solely by the Principal Investigator(s) and was not further developed, thoroughly reviewed, or edited by NSIDC. Thus, support for this data set may be limited.
This data set includes surface roughness parameters measured in the Walnut Creek watershed area of Iowa, USA for the Soil Moisture Experiment 2005 (SMEX05). Soil surface roughness photos were taken and roughness coefficients were calculated as part of the experiment site characterization protocol.
Notice to Data Users: The documentation for this data set was provided solely by the Principal Investigator(s) and was not further developed, thoroughly reviewed, or edited by NSIDC. Thus, support for this data set may be limited.
The data set SMEX04 Surface Roughness Data is comprised of data collected over the regional study areas of Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico as part of the 2004 Soil Moisture Experiment (SMEX04).
This data set includes soil moisture measurements for the Oklahoma study region. Summary files containing field averages are also provided. This data set is part of the Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 (SMEX03).
Southern Greenland ice sheet elevation change estimates are derived from SEASAT and GEOSAT radar altimetry data from 1978 to 1988. Data are confined to 61-72 deg N, 30-50 deg W, above 1700 m elevation. The addition of GEOSAT Geodetic Mission (GM) data results in twice as many crossover points and 50% greater coverage than previous studies. Coverage above 2000 m elevation is improved to 90%, and about 75% of the area between 1700 m and 2000 m is now covered. Data are in ASCII text format, available via FTP, and consist of elevation change rate (dH/dt, cm/year) and corresponding error estimates in 50 km grid cells.
GLAH06 is used in conjunction with GLAH05 to create the Level-2 altimetry products. Level-2 altimetry data provide surface elevations for ice sheets (GLAH12), sea ice (GLAH13), land (GLAH14), and oceans (GLAH15). Data also include the laser footprint geolocation and reflectance, as well as geodetic, instrument, and atmospheric corrections for range measurements. The Level-2 elevation products, are regional products archived at 14 orbits per granule, starting and stopping at the same demarcation (± 50° latitude) as GLAH05 and GLAH06. Each regional product is processed with algorithms specific to that surface type. Surface type masks define which data are written to each of the products. If any data within a given record fall within a specific mask, the entire record is written to the product. Masks can overlap: for example, non-land data in the sea ice region may be written to the sea ice and ocean products. This means that an algorithm may write the same data to more than one Level-2 product. In this case, different algorithms calculate the elevations in their respective products. The surface type masks are versioned and archived at NSIDC, so users can tell which data to expect in each product. Each data granule has an associated browse product.
NOTE ON GLAS BINARY DATA: Access to all ICESat/GLAS binary data products at NSIDC DAAC was removed 01 August 2017. The Binary Data Subsetter also has been decommissioned. ICESat/GLAS data remain available in <a href="http://nsidc.org/data/glah07/versions/33">HDF5 format</a>.
The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument on the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) provides global measurements of polar ice sheet elevation to discern changes in ice volume (mass balance) over time. Secondary objectives of GLAS are to measure sea ice roughness and thickness, cloud and atmospheric properties, land topography, vegetation canopy heights, ocean surface topography, and surface reflectivity.
GLAS has a 1064 nm laser channel for surface altimetry and dense cloud heights, and a 532 nm lidar channel for the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols.
Level-1B global backscatter data (GLA07) are provided at full instrument resolution. The product includes full 532 nm (41.1 to -1.0 km) and 1064 nm (20 to -1 km) calibrated attenuated backscatter profiles at 5 times per second, and from 10 to -1 km, at 40 times per second for both channels. Also included are calibration coefficient values and molecular backscatter profiles at once per second. Data granules contain approximately 190 minutes (2 orbits) of data.
Each data granule has an associated browse product that users can quickly peruse to determine the general quality of the data in the granule. Browse products consist of image plots of key parameters and statistics. Data are in scaled integer binary format, big-endian (Unix) byte order.
The Historical Soviet Daily Snow Depth (HSDSD) product is based on observations from 284 World Meteorological Organization (WMO) stations throughout Russia and the former Soviet Union from 1881 through 1995. Other parameters include snow cover percent, snow characteristics, site characterization, and quality flags.