The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) is one of the NASA EOS data centers (see Supplement Materials: NASA EOS Data Centers).
NSIDC manages and distributes satellite data products and some scientific data related to polar regions and cryosphere,
including the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground, and climate interactions.
NSIDC also manages data products from NOAA and DoD satellites.
In this task you will learn how the properties of sea-ice retrieved from passive remote sensing.
One of the longest records of sea-ice observations from space has been provided by the SSM/I
(Special Sensor Microwave Imager) since about 1987.
SSM/I was flown aboard several Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites.
The SSM/I is a seven-channel, four-frequency (19.35, 22.235, 37.0, and 85.5 GHz),
linearly-polarized, passive microwave radiometric system.
Here is the link to
brief definitions of sea-ice data products retrieved from satellites.
The theoretical basis is described in the NASA Team Sea
Ice Algorithm. Read the description of the algorithm first, and then apply it to SSM/I observations of
brightness temperatures to retrieve the concentration
of first-year sea-ice, multiyear sea-ice and total
sea-ice in the regions A and B marked on SSM/I images.
Do your results look reasonable? Briefly explain why.
SSM/I images
of brightness temperature for Jan.29, 2002
Channel 19V
Channel 19H
Channel 37V