Welcome to the NERSC Arctic Sea Ice Observation System.
NERSC has processed daily passive microwave remote sensing data of sea ice from the Arctic since they first became available in 1978 using the NERSC developed NORSEX algorithm.
Update 5 June 2025 (https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index): Notice: Recent delivery from the US Navy of the SSMIS passive microwave data that this sea ice product uses has become more sporadic. The Defense Department has informed NSIDC that they will reduce the priority of processing the SSMIS data, resulting in likely daily data gaps. NSIDC will explore switching to a different sensor, the JAXA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2). We expect to be able to continue our regular analyses after calibrating between sensors to keep the time series as consistent as possible. However, this transition will take time. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience during this transition.
Due to funding restrictions in US, support for this data from NSIDC is reduced to BASIC, se info here.
Some missing data may occur in periods, showing strange results - see here
Some
Daily Arctic Sea Ice Map from SSMI, NERSC
Seasonal Arctic Sea Ice Extent in mill. sq. km.
Seasonal Arctic Sea Ice Area in mill. sq. km.
Data Attribution: The data provided on this website is sourced from the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC) Arctic Sea Ice Observing System (https://iceobs.nersc.no), using the NERSC developed NORSEX Sea Ice algorithm. It uses DMSP SMM/I Brightness temperatures (https://nsidc.org/). It is updated daily and intended for informational purposes only. If you use or reference this data, please attribute it to "NERSC Arctic Sea Ice Observing System" and include a link back to this website (https://iceobs.nersc.no). NERSC makes no warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of the data.