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Full catalog/NSIDC-0001
NSIDC-0001·v6·dataset

Microwave brightness over the poles (DMSP, daily)

DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Daily Polar Gridded Brightness Temperatures V006
land NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Provides daily maps over the polar regions of natural microwave energy from the surface, expressed as brightness temperature (how warm the surface looks to the sensor) across several frequencies and polarizations.

How it's made. Built from the SSM/I and SSMIS passive microwave sensors on a series of DMSP satellites, gridded daily into a polar map (12.5-25 km) using a simple averaging method, with a record stretching back to 1987.

How & where you'd use it. A building-block input used to track sea ice, snow cover, and surface conditions over the poles, and to study long-term polar climate change.

What's measured

SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › INFRARED WAVELENGTHS › BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1987-07-09 → ongoing
  • Measured byDMSP 5D-2/F11 (SSM/I) · DMSP 5D-2/F13 (SSM/I) · DMSP 5D-2/F8 (SSM/I) · DMSP 5D-3/F17 (SSMIS) · DMSP 5D-3/F18 (SSMIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, 30, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

This data set provides daily gridded brightness temperatures derived from passive microwave sensors and distributed in a polar stereographic projection. NSIDC produces daily gridded brightness temperatures from orbital swath data generated by the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) aboard the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F8, F11, and F13 platforms and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) aboard DMSP F17 and F18. The SSM/I and SSMIS channels used to calculate brightness temperatures include 19.3 GHz vertical and horizontal, 22.2 GHz vertical, 37.0 GHz vertical and horizontal, 85.5 GHz vertical and horizontal (on SSM/I), and 91.7 GHz vertical and horizontal (on SSMIS). Data at 85.5 GHz and 91.7 GHz are gridded at a resolution of 12.5 km, with all other frequencies at a resolution of 25 km. Orbital data for each 24-hour period are mapped to respective grid cells using a simple sum-and-average method, also known as the drop-in-the-bucket method. Data coverage began on 09 July 1987 and is ongoing through the most current processing, with updated data processed several times annually.

Get the data

nsidc-0001_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NSIDC-0001",
    version="6",
    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.