Where there's sea ice and snow, near-real-time (AMSR2, daily)

In plain English

What it measures. Daily global maps giving a best estimate of where sea ice covers the ocean and where snow lies on land.

How it's made. Derived in near-real-time from the AMSR2 microwave instrument on Japan's GCOM-W1 satellite, on an equal-area global grid, using the best information available at acquisition time.

How & where you'd use it. Helps people get a quick daily picture of current ice and snow conditions, though it is not meant for operational navigation decisions.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE › SEA ICE CONCENTRATIONCRYOSPHERE › SNOW/ICE › SNOW COVER

Coverage & cadence

Time span2024-01-01 → ongoing
Measured byGCOM-W1 (AMSR2)
Processing levelLevel 3
Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
FormatsHDF-EOS4, HDF-EOS2
StatusACTIVE

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

The Near-real-time Ice and Snow Extent (NISE) Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) data set provides daily, global maps of sea ice concentrations and snow extent. The data provides a best estimate of current ice and snow conditions based on information and algorithms available at the time the data are acquired. Near-real-time products are not intended for operational use in assessing sea ice conditions for navigation.

Get the data

nise_a2_access.py

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NISE_A2",
    version="1",
    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