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Full catalog/VJ229
VJ229·v2·dataset

Where sea ice is (VIIRS, NOAA-21, 375 m)

VIIRS/JPSS2 Sea Ice Cover 6-Min L2 Swath 375 m V002
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 2 active NetCDF
In plain English

What it measures. Maps showing where sea ice is present on the ocean, at about 375-meter detail, along the satellite's path.

How it's made. Derived from the VIIRS sensor on the NOAA-21 (JPSS-2) satellite, using the same brightness-index approach that distinguishes ice and snow.

How & where you'd use it. Helps monitor sea ice extent for navigation, weather forecasting, and tracking changes in the polar regions.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2023-02-10 → ongoing
  • Measured byJPSS-2 (VIIRS) · NOAA-21 (VIIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsNetCDF
  • 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

This data set reports the location of sea ice cover derived from radiance data acquired by the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Joint Polar Satellite System's second satellite (JPSS-2). Following the approach used by MODIS, sea ice is detected using the Normalized Difference Snow Index.

Get the data

vj229_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VJ229",
    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.