Aircraft radar scanning snow layers (IceBridge) — IRACC1B

In plain English

What it measures. Radar profiles that reveal the layered structure of snow and ice from above, showing how strongly different layers bounce the radar signal back.

How it's made. Collected by an accumulation radar flown on aircraft over Greenland and Antarctica during NASA's Operation IceBridge campaigns, at an early processing stage with location added.

How & where you'd use it. Used by glaciologists to study snow accumulation and ice sheet layering, helping bridge gaps between satellite ice missions.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIER TOPOGRAPHY/ICE SHEET TOPOGRAPHYSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › RADAR › RADAR IMAGERYCRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE › SEA ICE ELEVATIONCRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW COVER

Coverage & cadence

Time span2013-03-21 → 2018-05-01
Measured byDC-8 (Accumulation Radar) · P-3B (Accumulation Radar)
Processing levelLevel 1B
Spatial extent-180, 60, 180, 90
FormatsnetCDF-4, XML, JPEG
StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

Measure sea ice, snow cover and glaciers
Watch ice-sheet elevation change
Track freeze/thaw and permafrost

Official description

This data set contains radar echograms taken over Greenland and Antarctica using the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Accumulation Radar instrument. The data were collected as part of Operation IceBridge funded campaigns.

Get the data

iracc1b_access.py

import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="IRACC1B",
    version="2",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from NSIDC_CPRD

Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.

What's measured

Coverage & cadence

What you can do with it

Get the data

Official links