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Full catalog/IS2MPDDA
IS2MPDDA·v3·dataset

Melt ponds on Arctic sea ice (ICESat-2)

ICESat-2 Derived Sea Ice Melt Pond Characteristics from the Density-Dimension Algorithm V003
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 4 ASCIIPNG
In plain English

What it measures. The locations and depths of melt ponds, the pools of meltwater that form on top of Arctic sea ice in summer.

How it's made. Calculated from ICESat-2's laser-altimeter photon measurements using an automated algorithm that detects pond surfaces and bottoms.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for studying summer sea-ice melt, which affects how much sunlight the Arctic absorbs and how the ice cover changes.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE › MELT POND

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2020-06-04 → 2020-08-28
  • Measured byICESat-2 (ATLAS)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-150, 75, 0, 90
  • FormatsASCII, PNG
  • 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 provides locations and depths of melt ponds in the Multi-Year Arctic Sea Ice Region, calculated from ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data, Version 5 (ATL03) using an autoadaptive algorithm.

Get the data

is2mpdda_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="IS2MPDDA",
    version="3",
    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.