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Full catalog/NSIDC-0709
NSIDC-0709·v2·dataset

Where Antarctica's ice meets the sea (radar, 2007-2009)

MEaSUREs Antarctic Boundaries for IPY 2007-2009 from Satellite Radar V002
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 3 GeoTIFFBMPShapefile
In plain English

What it measures. Maps marking the edges of Antarctica: where the ice shelves end, where the coastline lies, and how the continent's ice drainage basins are divided, based on conditions in 2007-2009.

How it's made. Stitched together from radar images taken by several satellites during the International Polar Years, combined with maps of where the ice sits on land versus floats on the sea.

How & where you'd use it. Gives researchers a consistent reference for measuring ice loss, tracking shrinking ice shelves, and studying how Antarctica is changing.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › BASINSCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › COASTLINECRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIERS › GROUNDING LINECRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › ICE SHELVES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1992-02-07 → 2015-12-31
  • Measured byALOS (PALSAR) · AQUA (MODIS) · COSMO-SKYMED (SAR) · ENVISAT (ASAR) · ERS-1 (SAR) · ERS-2 (SAR) · LANDSAT-8 (OLI) · RADARSAT-1 (SAR) · RADARSAT-2 (SAR) · SENTINEL-1A (C-SAR) · TERRA (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, -60
  • FormatsGeoTIFF, BMP, Shapefile
  • 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, part of the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) program, provides maps of Antarctic ice shelves, Antarctic basins, and the Antarctic coastline. The maps are assembled from 2008-2009 ice-front data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) ALOS PALSAR and European Space Agency's ENVISAT ASAR data, acquired during International Polar Years 2007-2009 (IPY); the InSAR-based grounding line data (MEaSUREs Antarctic Grounding Line from Differential Satellite Radar Interferometry), augmented with other grounding line sources; the Antarctic ice velocity map (MEaSUREs InSAR-Based Antarctica Ice Velocity Map); and the Bedmap-2 DEM. See <a href="https://nsidc.org/data/measures/aiv">Antarctic Ice Sheet Velocity and Mapping Data</a> for related data.

Get the data

nsidc-0709_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NSIDC-0709",
    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.