IMS Daily Northern Hemisphere Snow and Ice Analysis at 4 km and 24 km Resolution

Data Contributors

NOAA

Parameters

ICE EXTENT
SEA ICE CONCENTRATION
SNOW COVER

Instruments

AVHRR : ADVANCED VERY HIGH RESOLUTION RADIOMETER
GOES I-M IMAGER
SSM/I : SPECIAL SENSOR MICROWAVE/IMAGER

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA/NESDIS) has an extensive history of monitoring snow and ice coverage. Accurate monitoring of global snow/ice cover is a key component in the study of climate and global change as well as daily weather forecasting. By inspecting environmental satellite imagery, analysts from the Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution (OSDPD), Satellite Services Division (SSD), Satellite Analysis Branch (SAB), have created a Northern Hemisphere snow/ice map since November 1966. Initially, the product was produced with a spatial resolution of about 16,000 square kilometers to 42,000 square kilometers and temporal resolution of seven days. In 1997, the Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) became operational, giving the satellite analysts improved access to imagery and drawing tools. Since February 1997, the IMS product has been produced daily at approximately 24 km resolution (1024 x 1024 grid). Further improvements in computer speed and imagery resolution allowed production of a higher resolution product at approximately 4 km resolution (6144 x 6144 grid), beginning in February 2004. NSIDC archives and distributes both IMS products, as well as GIF image files for these products. To view the images, please visit the NOAA SSD Snow Products Web site. In June 2006, NSIDC started distributing 4 km GeoTIFF files for use with GIS applications.

Data Citation

NOAA/NESDIS/OSDPD/SSD. 2004, updated 2006. IMS daily Northern Hemisphere snow and ice analysis at 4 km and 24 km resolution. Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital media.