Sea Ice Index, Version 4

Notice: Due to funding limitations, this data set was recently changed to a “Basic” Level of Service. Learn more about what this means for users and how you can share your story here: Level of Service Update for Data Products.

The Sea Ice Index provides a quick look at Arctic- and Antarctic-wide changes in sea ice. It is a source for consistent, up-to-date sea ice extent and concentration images, in PNG format, and data values, in GeoTIFF and ASCII text files, from November 1978 to the present. Sea Ice Index images also depict trends and anomalies in ice cover calculated using a 30-year reference period of 1981 through 2010.

The images and data are produced in a consistent way that makes the Index time-series appropriate for use when looking at long-term trends in sea ice cover. Both monthly and daily products are available. However, monthly products are better to use for long-term trend analysis because errors in the daily product tend to be averaged out in the monthly product and because day-to-day variations are often the result of short-term weather.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated September 8, 2026, 05:39 (UTC)
Created August 1, 2025, 18:50 (UTC)
accessLevel public
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harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.7265/a98x-0f50
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-08-31T22:16:03Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher NOAA;NSIDC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash ef23bd2ad8a8359de95c99abbcc6061e4a57fc7dc11564d6374c97cf609bfe51
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"WestBoundingCoordinate": -180.0, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": -39.23, "EastBoundingCoordinate": 180.0, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": -90.0}, {"WestBoundingCoordinate": -180.0, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 90.0, "EastBoundingCoordinate": 180.0, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": 30.98}]]
temporal 1978-10-26/2026-08-31
theme {"Earth Science"}