NSIDC-0218_1
Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Characteristics Derived from Passive Microwave Data, Version 1
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Abstract
The Greenland ice sheet melt extent data, acquired as part of the NASA Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA), is a daily (or every other day, prior to August 1987) estimate of the spatial extent of wet snow on the Greenland ice sheet since 1979. It is derived from passive microwave satellite brightness temperature characteristics using the Cross-Polarized Gradient Ratio (XPGR) of Abdalati and Steffen (1997). It is physically based on the changes in microwave emission characteristics observable in data from the Scanning Multi-channel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) and the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) instruments when surface snow melts. It is not a direct measure of the snow wetness but rather is a binary indicator of the state of melt of each SMMR and SSM/I pixel on the ice sheet for each day of observation. It is, however, a useful proxy for the amount of melt that occurs on the Greenland ice sheet. The data are provided in a variety of formats including raw data in ASCII format, gridded daily data in binary format, and annual and complete time series climatologies in gridded binary and GeoTIFF format. All data are in a 60 x 109 pixel subset of the standard Northern Hemisphere polar stereographic grid with a 25 km resolution and are available via FTP. -
Purpose
Scientific Research -
DOI
10.5067/NON9395MQ9TK
Data Identification Fields:
Processing Level
Level 3
Geophysical variables mapped on a grid
Quality
Collection Progress
Planned
Related URLs
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- EARTH SCIENCE
- Cryosphere
- Snow/Ice
- Snow Melt
- EARTH SCIENCE
- Terrestrial Hydrosphere
- Snow/Ice
- Snow Melt
- EARTH SCIENCE
- Cryosphere
- Snow/Ice
- Snow Melt
- EARTH SCIENCE
- Terrestrial Hydrosphere
- Snow/Ice
- Snow Melt
Science Keywords
Other Descriptive Keywords
ISO Topic Categories
- IMAGERY/BASE MAPS/EARTH COVER
- GEOSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
Acquisition Information Fields:
Platforms
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Earth Observation Satellites
DMSP 5D-2/F11Instruments
- SSM/I
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Earth Observation Satellites
DMSP 5D-2/F13Instruments
- SSM/I
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Earth Observation Satellites
DMSP 5D-2/F8Instruments
- SSM/I
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Earth Observation Satellites
NIMBUS-7Instruments
- SMMR
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Earth Observation Satellites
Nimbus-7Instruments
- SMMR
Temporal Information Fields:
Spatial Information Fields:
Coverage Type | Zone Identifier | Geometry | Granule Representation |
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HORIZONTAL | CARTESIAN | GEODETIC |
Location Keywords
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- Continent
- North America
- Greenland
Data Centers
Data Contacts
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Waleed Abdalati
Technical ContactWaleed Abdalati
Boulder, CO 80309
- Home Page
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NSIDC Services
Technical ContactNSIDC Services
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0449- 1 303 492 6199
- 1 303 492 2468
- Home Page
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Waleed Abdalati
Technical ContactWaleed Abdalati
This contact does not have any addresses listed.
This contact does not have any contact mechanisms listed.
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National Snow and Ice Data Center
User ServicesNational Snow and Ice Data Center
Boulder, Colorado
This contact does not have any contact mechanisms listed.
- Home Page
Collection Citations Fields:
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Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Characteristics Derived from Passive Microwave Data, Version 1
1Published by: National Snow and Ice Data Center