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Full catalog/NSIDC-0081
NSIDC-0081·v2·dataset

How much of the sea is ice-covered, near-real-time (daily)

Near-Real-Time DMSP SSMIS Daily Polar Gridded Sea Ice Concentrations V002
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 PNGnetCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. A daily map of what fraction of the sea surface is covered by ice, for both the Arctic and Antarctic. The 'near-real-time' label means it's released quickly for current monitoring.

How it's made. Derived from the SSMIS microwave sensors flown on DMSP satellites. (The provided description is brief and doesn't detail the processing steps.)

How & where you'd use it. Used to watch sea-ice conditions as they happen, supporting shipping, weather and climate monitoring, and polar research.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE › SEA ICE CONCENTRATION

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2024-01-01 → 2026-01-14
  • Measured byDMSP 5D-3/F16 (SSMIS) · DMSP 5D-3/F17 (SSMIS) · DMSP 5D-3/F18 (SSMIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, 30.98, 180, 90
  • FormatsPNG, netCDF-4
  • 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 a Near-Real-Time (NRT) map of sea ice concentrations for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Get the data

nsidc-0081_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NSIDC-0081",
    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.