How fast Antarctic ice shelves thin and melt underneath
What it measures. How the surface height and thickness of Antarctica's floating ice shelves changed over time, and how fast they were melting from below, given every three months from 1992 to 2017.
How it's made. Derived by fusing radar height measurements from four European satellites (ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat, and CryoSat-2) with an ice energy-and-mass model.
How & where you'd use it. Helps scientists understand how warming ocean water is thinning Antarctic ice shelves, a key factor in future sea-level rise.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span1992-03-17 → 2017-12-16
- Measured byCRYOSAT-2 (SIRAL) · ENVISAT (RA-2) · ERS-1 (RA) · ERS-2 (RA)
- Processing levelLevel 4
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, -54
- FormatsnetCDF-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 ITS_LIVE data set, part of the Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Program, includes quarterly estimates of Antarctic ice shelf surface elevation, thickness, basal melt rate, surface mass balance, firn air content, and associated errors, from 17 March 1992 through 16 December 2017 at 1920 m resolution. The data were generated from four European Space Agency (ESA) satellite radar altimetry missions—ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat, and CryoSat-2—using a novel data fusion approach and the Glacier Energy and Mass Balance model (GEMB).
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="NSIDC-0792",
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_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
- MEaSUREs ITS_LIVE Antarctic Quarterly 1920 m Ice Shelf Height Change and Basal Melt Rates, 1992-2017, Version 1 User Guide VIEW RELATED INFORMATION