Small Multiples of NSIDC North Pole Sea Ice Extent

  • Released Tuesday, September 9, 2014
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This is a still image generated from National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) north pole sea ice extent images. These images are arranged in a grid pattern with the years across the top from 1979 to 2014 and the months running down the image from January to December.

By glancing at the image, the viewer can quickly see the periods during the year when north pole sea ice extent is at minimum and maximum. It is also easy to see how the sea ice has changed over the years. There is no data for December 1987 and January 1988; these dates are left black.

Monthly sea ice extent arranged in a grid pattern with years running horizontally from 1979 to 2014 and months running vertically from January through December

Monthly sea ice extent arranged in a grid pattern with years running horizontally from 1979 to 2014 and months running vertically from January through December

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Tuesday, September 9, 2014.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:50 PM EDT.

Datasets used

  • Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data

    ID: 761
    Type: Data Compilation Collected by: NSIDC Dates used: 01/1979 through 12/2014

    This data set is generated from brightness temperature data derived from the following sensors: the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) -F8, -F11 and -F13 Special Sensor Microwave/Imagers (SSM/Is), and the DMSP-F17 Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS). The data are provided in the polar stereographic projection at a grid cell size of 25 x 25 km. This product is designed to provide a consistent time series of sea ice concentrations (the fraction, or percentage, of ocean area covered by sea ice) spanning the coverage of several passive microwave instruments. To aid in this goal, sea ice algorithm coefficients are changed to reduce differences in sea ice extent and area as estimated using the SMMR and SSM/I sensors. The data are generated using the NASA Team algorithm developed by the Oceans and Ice Branch, Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

    This dataset can be found at: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0051.html

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Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.