The PO.DAAC is pleased to announce the "Preview" release of the
"SeaWinds on QuikSCAT Arctic Sea Ice Age Classification (BYU/SCP)"
dataset produced by Dr. David Long at Brigham Young University (BYU) as part
of the Scatterometer Climate Record Pathfinder (SCP) (Swan and Long, 2012).
This dataset identifies First-Year (FY) and Multi-Year (MY) sea ice
using SeaWinds on QuikSCAT scatterometer observations on a daily basis from
20 June 2002 through 23 November 2009. The dataset provides nominal 4.45 km
(pixel resolution at reference latitude 70 N) gridded fields from daily
gridded QuikSCAT vertically polarized (V-pol) egg backscatter data produced
by SCP. The product utilizes passive microwave AMSR-E 6 GHz data to
provide the initial ocean/ice masking edge. The seasonal threshold for FY and
MY sea ice classification is derived from the QuikSCAT data. Further details
on the algorithms, validation, and error estimates are described in Swan and
Long (2012).
Data files are provided in a CF-compliant, netCDF version 3 format. The
dataset, software readers (currently available in Python and IDL), and user
guide documentation can be accessed at: ftp://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/allData/quikscat/preview/L3/byu_scp/sea_ice_age/arctic/.
The primary dataset information page is provided through our web portal:
http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/QSCAT_ARCTIC_SEAICE_AGE_CLASS_BYUSCP_V1
The V-pol egg backscatter data used to generate the primary dataset is
also available at PO.DAAC: http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/dataset/QUIKSCAT_BYU_L3_OW_SIGMA0_ENHANCED
Should you have any questions or wish to provide feedback on this dataset,
please contact us at: podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov
References:
A.M. Swan and D.G. Long, 2012: Multi-year Arctic sea ice classification using
QuikSCAT. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Rem. Sens., Vol. 50, No. 9, pp. 3317-3326. doi:
10.1109/LGRS.2011.2180505
This dataset is currently only available through PO.DAAC, but a link to
this product will soon be available through the National Snow and Ice Data
Center (NSIDC, http://nsidc.org), which processes, archives,
documents, and distributes data from NASA's past and current Earth
Observing System (EOS) satellites and field measurement programs, focusing on
the cryosphere.