Earth ID: 3579

Sea Ice over the Arctic and Antarctic designed for Science On a Sphere (SOS) and WMS

Visualizations by Cindy Starr Released on February 5, 2009

Sea ice is frozen seawater floating on the surface of the ocean, typically averaging a few meters in thickness. Some sea ice is semi-permanent, persisting from year to year, and some is seasonal, melting and refreezing from season to season. This animation shows how the seasonal global sea ice has changed from day to day since 2002, when the Aqua satellite was launched. The AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite acquires high resolution measurements of the 89 GHz brightness temperature and sea ice concentration near the poles. This sensor is able to observe the entire polar region every day, even through clouds and snowfall, because it is not very sensitive to atmospheric effects. The false color of the sea ice, derived from the AMSR-E 6.25 km 89 GHz brightness temperature, highlights the fissures or divergence areas in the sea ice cover by warm brightness temperatures (in blue) while cold brightness temperatures, shown in brighter white, represent consolidated sea ice. The sea ice edge identifies areas containing at least 15% ice concentration in the three-day moving average of the AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice concentration data.

This sequence shows the daily global sea ice over both the Arctic and Antarctic on a Cartesian grid from June 21, 2002 through December 31, 2008 at a frame rate of four frames per day. On days when data is not available, the prior or following day's data is used. Periods when data was absent for several consecutive days include: 2002/07/29 through 2002/08/08, 2002/09/11 through 2002/09/20, and 2003/10/29 through 2003/11/03.

Visualization Credits

Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3579

Data Used:

Aqua/AMSR-E/Daily L3 6.25 km 89 GHz Brightness Temperature (Tb)

2002/06/21 through 2008/12/31

view all stories where this data set is used

Aqua/AMSR-E/Daily L3 12.5km Tb, Sea Ice Concentration, and Snow Depth also referred to as: Sea Ice Concentration

2002/06/21 through 2008/12/31

view all stories where this data set is used

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
Science On a Sphere

Keywords:
DLESE >> Cryology
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Hydrosphere >> Snow/Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Sea Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Ice Floes
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Ice Growth/Melt
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Ice Types
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Sea Ice Concentration
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Sea Ice Motion
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Freeze/Thaw
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Ice Growth/Melt
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Ice Motion
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Hydrosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Ice Motion
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Sea Ice >> Ice Floes
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Sea Ice >> Ice Growth/Melt
SVS >> Science On a Sphere
SVS >> For Educators
SVS >> Arctic Circle >> Glaciers
SVS >> Antarctic Circle
SVS >> Frigid Zone
SVS >> Saturation
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0

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