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Summary

NSIDC produces gridded brightness temperatures (TBs) on polar
stereographic grids for north and south polar regions from orbital
(swath) data collected by the Scanning Multichannel Microwave
Radiometer (SMMR) flown aboard the Nimbus-7 satellite. This data set
contains gridded brightness temperatures (TB) and sea ice
concentrations, spanning October 1978 ... through August 1987, when the
SMMR scanner was turned off. Brightness temperature and sea ice
concentration grids have 25 x 25 km grid elements. The data were
collected every other day at 6.60, 10.69, 18.00, 21.00 and 37.00
GHz. (The scanner operated only on alternate days, due to spacecraft
power limitations).

There are usually at least 14 days of coverage per month, although
major data gaps occur in 1982, August 4th, 8th, and 16th are missing
for both polar regions; in 1984, August 13th through the 23rd are
missing for both polar regions. Volume 7 contains all SMMR sea ice
concentrations for both polar regions, plus five months of TB grids
for the north polar region.

The NASA Team Algorithm (Cavalieri et al. 1984, Gloersen and Cavalieri
1986) was used to calculate ice concentrations from the TBs. Data were
produced by Dr. P. Gloersen, NASA/GSFC, Oceans and Ice
Branch. Users note: SMMR TCT tapes comprised the input data set,
unlike the one-volume SMMR CD-ROM product distributed by NSIDC in 1979.

An online guide available for this data set. CD-ROM distribution
currently at no charge, first priority to NASA and NASA-funded
investigators.

Geographic Coverage Spatial coordinates   

Data Set Citation

Dataset Creator: Per Gloersen Dataset Title: Nimbus-7 SMMR Polar Gridded Radiances and Sea Ice Concentrations Dataset Release Place: Boulder, CO U.S.A. Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0007.html

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 1978-10-25 Stop Date: 1987-08-20

Location Keywords

OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > Baffin Bay OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > Barents Sea OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > Beaufort Sea OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > Bering Sea OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > Chukchi Sea OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > East Siberian Sea OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > Hudson Bay OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > Kara Sea OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > Laptev Sea OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > North Atlantic Ocean > Greenland Sea OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > North Atlantic Ocean > Labrador Sea OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > North Atlantic Ocean > Norwegian Sea OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > BEAUFORT SEA OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN > BERING SEA OCEAN > ARCTIC OCEAN > CHUKCHI SEA CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > CANADA > HUDSON BAY OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > Greenland Sea OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > Labrador Sea OCEAN > ATLANTIC OCEAN > NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN > Norwegian Sea GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > Amundsen Sea OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > Bellingshausen Sea OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > Ross Sea OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > Weddell Sea OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN

Science Keywords

CRYOSPHERE > SEA ICE > ICE EXTENT CRYOSPHERE > SEA ICE > SEA ICE CONCENTRATION CRYOSPHERE > SNOW/ICE > ICE EXTENT TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE > SNOW/ICE > ICE EXTENT OCEANS > SEA ICE > ICE EXTENT OCEANS > SEA ICE > SEA ICE CONCENTRATION SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING > MICROWAVE > BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURE

ISO Topic Category

OCEANS INLAND WATERS GEOSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION IMAGERY/BASE MAPS/EARTH COVER

Platform

NIMBUS-7

Instrument

RADIOMETERS SMMR > Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer

Project

EOSDIS > Earth Observing System Data Information System ESIP > Earth Science Information Partners Program

Ancillary Keywords

ANTARCTIC ARCTIC CD-ROM DAAC EOSDIS GLOBAL CHANGE ICE NSIDC DAAC PASSIVE MICROWAVE POLAR RADIANCE REMOTE SENSING SEA ICE CONCENTRATION SEA ICE EXTENT SNOW

Data Set Progress

COMPLETE

Data Center

National Snow and Ice Data Center Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org Dataset ID: NSIDC-0007 Dataset ID: SI-009 Dataset ID: SI-010 Data Center Personnel Name: NSIDC USER SERVICES Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199 Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468 Email: nsidc at nsidc.org Contact Address: National Snow and Ice Data Center CIRES, 449 UCB University of Colorado City: Boulder Province or State: CO Postal Code: 80309-0449 Country: USA NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/daac/ Dataset ID: NSIDC-0007 Dataset ID: SI-009 Dataset ID: SI-010 Data Center Personnel Name: NSIDC DAAC USER SERVICES Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199 Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468 Email: nsidc at nsidc.org Contact Address: National Snow and Ice Data Center CIRES, 449 UCB University of Colorado City: Boulder Province or State: CO Postal Code: 80309-0449 Country: USA

Distribution

Distribution Media: CD-ROM

Personnel

PER GLOERSEN Role: INVESTIGATOR Phone: (301) 614-5710 Fax: (301) 614-5644 Email: Per.Gloersen at nasa.gov Contact Address: Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Code 614 City: Greenbelt Province or State: MD Postal Code: 20771 Country: USA DONALD J. CAVALIERI Role: INVESTIGATOR Phone: (301) 614-5901 Fax: (301) 614-5644 Email: donald.j.cavalieri at nasa.gov Contact Address: Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Code 614.1 City: Greenbelt Province or State: MD Postal Code: 20771 Country: USA NSIDC USER SERVICES Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199 Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468 Email: nsidc at nsidc.org Contact Address: National Snow and Ice Data Center CIRES, 449 UCB University of Colorado City: Boulder Province or State: CO Postal Code: 80309-0449 Country: USA

Related URL

Link: View Related Information Description: Description of Nimbus-7 SMMR Polar Radiances and Sea Ice Concentrations

Publications/References

Carsey, F.D., ed., Microwave remote sensing of sea ice. Geophysical
Monograph 68, American Geophysical Union, 1992.

Cavalieri, D.J., P. Gloersen and W.J. Campbell, Determination of sea
ice parameters with the Nimbus-7 SMMR,
J. Geophys. Res. 89(D4):5355-5369, 1984.

Comiso, J.C. and H.J. Zwally, Polar microwave brightness temperatures
... from Nimbus-7 SMMR: Time series of daily and monthly maps from 1978 to
1987. NASA. Reference Publication, 1223, 82 p.,1989.

Francis, E.A., Calibration of the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel
Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), 1979-1984, Oregon State University,
M.S. thesis, 248 p., 1987.

Gloersen, P., In-orbit calibration adjustment of the Nimbus-7
SMMR. NASA Technical Memorandum 100678, 39 p, 1987.

Gloersen, P. and D.J. Cavalieri, Reduction of weather effects in the
calculation of sea ice concentration from microwave radiances. J. of
Geophys. Res. 91(C3):3913-3919, 1986.

Gloersen, P., W.J. Campbell, D.J. Cavalieri, J.C. Comiso,
C.L. Parkinson and H.J. Zwally. Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice,
1978-1987: Satellite Passive Microwave Observations. NASA SP-511,
1992.

National Snow and Ice Data Center, Nimbus-7 SMMR Polar Radiances and
Sea Ice Concentrations on CD-ROM. User's Guide. NSIDC, Special
Publication NSIDC SP-3, Boulder, CO, 1994.

Nimbus-7 User's Guide. NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, 263 p., 1978.

Creation and Review Dates

Last DIF Revision Date: 2004-06-03

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