Abstract:
The Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid Weekly Snow Cover and Sea Ice Extent Version 3 product and Version 3.1 update combine snow cover and sea ice extent at weekly intervals from 23 October 1978 through 24 June 2007, and snow cover alone from 3 October 1966 through 23 October 1978. The data set is the first representation of combined snow and sea ice measurements derived from satellite observations ... for the period of record. Snow cover extent is based on the digital NOAA-NESDIS Weekly Northern Hemisphere Snow Charts, revised by D. Robinson (Rutgers University) and regridded to the EASE-Grid. The original NOAA-NESDIS weekly snow charts are derived from the manual interpretation of AVHRR, GOES, and other visible-band satellite data. Sea ice extent is regridded to EASE-Grid from Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I Passive Microwave Data. Designed to facilitate study of Northern Hemisphere seasonal fluctuations of snow cover and sea ice extent, the data set also includes monthly climatologies describing average extent, probability of occurrence, and variance. Data are provided in the Northern Hemisphere 25 km equal-area grid (NSIDC Nl EASE-Grid). Data are provided in flat, unsigned binary files and are available via FTP.
Quality
NSIDC observed and manually inspected every file in this data set, and performed spot checks against the original hand-drawn NOAA/NESDIS snow charts and the original sea ice data. Please see the Quality Control Summary for more information about quality control procedures at NSIDC.
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City:
Boulder
Province or State:
CO
Postal Code:
80309-0449
Country:
USA
Publications/References
Brodzik, M. J. 1997. EASE-Grid: A Versatile Set of Equal-Area Projections and Grids. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Cavalieri, D. J., J. Crawford, M. Drinkwater, W. J. Emery, D. T. Eppler, L. D. Farmer, M. Goodberlet, R. Jentz, A. Milman, C. Morris, R. Onstott, A. Schweiger, R. Shuchman, K. Steffen, C. T. Swift, C. Wackerman, and R. L. Weaver. 1992. NASA Sea Ice ... Validation Program for the DMSP SSM/I: Final Report. NASA Technical Memorandum 104559. 126 pp.
Cavalieri, D. J., P. Gloersen, and W. J. Campbell. 1984. Determination of Sea Ice Parameters with the NIMBUS-7 SMMR. Journal of Geophysical Research 89(D4):5355-5369.
Dewey, K. F. and R. Heim, Jr. 1981. Satellite Observations of Variations in Northern Hemisphere Seasonal Snow Cover. NOAA Technical Report NESS 87. 83 pp.
Dewey, K. F. and R. Heim Jr. 1982. New Data Base: A Digital Archive of Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover. Presented at Western Snow Conference, April 19-23. Reno, NV, 9 pp.
Gloersen, P., W. J. Campbell, D. J. Cavalieri, J. C. Comiso, C. L. Parkinson, and H. J. Zwally. 1992. Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice, 1978 - 1987: Satellite Passive Microwave Observations and Analysis. NASA SP-511.
Johannessen, O. M., M. W. Miles, E. Bjørgo. 1996. Global Sea Ice Monitoring from Microwave Satellites. In IGARSS '96. 1996 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Remote Sensing for a Sustainable Future, ed. T. I. Stein, Vol. II: 932-934. Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
Knowles, K. 1993. Points, Pixels, Grids, and Cells: A Mapping and Gridding Primer. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Robinson, D. A., A. Bamzai, and B. Ramsay. 2001. Evaluating Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover During the Satellite Era: Variations in Extent and Associations with Temperature. Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on Global Change and Climate Variations. Albuquerque, NM, American Meteorological Society, 36-39.
Robinson, D. A. 2000. Weekly Northern Hemisphere Snow Maps: 1966-1999. 12th Conference on Applied Climatology, Asheville, NC, American Meteorological Society, 12-15.
Robinson, D. A. and A. Frei. 2000. Seasonal Variability of Northern Hemisphere Snow Extent Using Visible Satellite Data. Professional Geographer 51: 307-314.
Robinson, D. A., J. D. Tarpley and B. Ramsay. 1999. Transition from NOAA Weekly to Daily Hemispheric Snow Charts. Proceedings of the 10th Symposium on Global Change, Dallas, TX, American Meteorological Society, 487-490.
Robinson, D. A., K. F. Dewey, and R. R. Heim, Jr. 1993. Global Snow Cover Monitoring: an Update. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 74:1689-1696.
Swift, C. T. and D. J. Cavalieri. 1985. Passive Microwave Remote Sensing for Sea Ice Research. EOS 66(49):1210-1212.
