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Full catalog/VNP29
VNP29·v2·dataset

Where there's sea ice (Suomi-NPP, 375 m)

VIIRS/NPP Sea Ice Cover 6-Min L2 Swath 375m V002
cryosphere NASA NSIDC_CPRD Level 2 active netCDF-4
In plain English

What it measures. Identifies where sea ice is present, mapped at 375 m detail along the satellite's path.

How it's made. Derived from VIIRS sensor readings on the Suomi-NPP satellite, using a snow/ice index much like the approach MODIS uses.

How & where you'd use it. Helps monitor sea ice extent and conditions for navigation, climate tracking and polar research.

What's measured

CRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2012-01-19 → ongoing
  • Measured bySuomi-NPP (VIIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 2
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4
  • 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 Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite. Following the approach used by MODIS, Sea Ice is detected using the Normalized Difference Snow Index.

Get the data

vnp29_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VNP29",
    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.