Where sea ice covers the ocean (Terra, 1 km)
What it measures. Where sea ice covers the ocean each day, along with the ice surface temperature. Each file holds five minutes of data from a strip the satellite passed over.
How it's made. Derived from the calibrated light measurements of the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, at about 1-km detail.
How & where you'd use it. Used to monitor sea ice extent and conditions in the polar oceans, supporting climate tracking, shipping, and studies of how ice is changing.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2000-02-24 → ongoing
- Measured byTerra (MODIS)
- Processing levelLevel 2
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
- FormatsHDF-EOS2
- StatusACTIVE
What you can do with it
- Watch sea-surface temperature and marine heatwaves
- Spot algal blooms and ocean-colour shifts
- Support fisheries and coastal monitoring
Official description
This global Level-2 (L2) product provides daily sea ice extent and ice surface temperature. The data are derived from Level-1B radiances acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the Terra satellite. Each data granule contains 5 minutes of swath data observed at a resolution of 1000 m. The terms "Version 61" and "Collection 6.1" are used interchangeably in reference to this release of MODIS data.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="MOD29",
version="61",
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_CPRDBrowsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package. Official links
- Search and order NASA Earth Science data using spatial and temporal filters. Reformatting, reprojecting, and subsetting options are available for some data sets. GET DATA
- Quickly download a few files using a web browser, or access data through a command-line utility such as WGET. GET DATA
- Search data by spatial and/or temporal ranges or file name. Choose from various download options, including a Python script. GET DATA
- A Python library to search and access NASA Earth science data with just a few lines of code GET DATA
- Find more data access options and help resources. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- MODIS/Terra Sea Ice Extent 5-Min L2 Swath 1km, Version 61 User Guide VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- MODIS Grids and Tile Locators VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- MODIS Sea Ice Products User Guide to Collection 6.1 VIEW RELATED INFORMATION