Skip to main content

Description

This dataset contains daily-averaged sea-ice and snow concentration and thickness interpolated to a regular 0.5-degree grid from the ECCO Version 4 revision 4 (V4r4) ocean and sea-ice state estimate. Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) ocean and sea-ice state estimates are dynamically and kinematically-consistent reconstructions of the three-dimensional, time-evolving ocean, sea-ice, and surface atmospheric states. ECCO V4r4 is a free-running solution of the 1-degree global configuration of the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) that has been fit to observations in a least-squares sense. Observational data constraints used in V4r4 include sea surface height (SSH) from satellite altimeters [ERS-1/2, TOPEX/Poseidon, GFO, ENVISAT, Jason-1,2,3, CryoSat-2, and SARAL/AltiKa]; sea surface temperature (SST) from satellite radiometers [AVHRR], sea surface salinity (SSS) from the Aquarius satellite radiometer/scatterometer, ocean bottom pressure (OBP) from the GRACE satellite gravimeter; sea ice concentration from satellite radiometers [SSM/I and SSMIS], and in-situ ocean temperature and salinity measured with conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensors and expendable bathythermographs (XBTs) from several programs [e.g., WOCE, GO-SHIP, Argo, and others] and platforms [e.g.,research vessels, gliders, moorings, ice-tethered profilers, and instrumented pinnipeds]. V4r4 covers the period 1992-01-01T12:00:00 to 2018-01-01T00:00:00.

Product Summary

Platforms
MODELS ,
MITgcm
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
0.5 Decimal Degrees x 0.5 Decimal Degrees
Location
GLOBAL OCEAN
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
1992-01-01 to 2018-01-01
Data Partner
Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (NASA/JPL/PODAAC)
Concept ID
C1990404815-POCLOUD
Data State
COMPLETE
Number of Files/Granules
9497
Processing Level
4
Published
Science Keywords
Snow Depth ,
Ice Fraction ,
Ice Depth/Thickness ,
Sea Ice Concentration

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Fenty, I., & Wang, O. (2020). ECCO Sea-Ice and Snow Concentration and Thickness - Daily Mean 0.5 Degree (Version 4 release 4) [Data set]. NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/ECG5D-ICO44 Date Accessed: 2026-03-15

Documents

Variables

The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR). Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables. Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data, user guide, and/or other product documentation.

For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.

Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor Offset
latitude uniform grid spacing from -89.75 to 89.75 by 0.5 degrees_north float N/A N/A 1 N/A
latitude_bnds latitude bounds grid cells N/A float N/A N/A 1 N/A
longitude uniform grid spacing from -179.75 to 179.75 by 0.5 degrees_east float N/A N/A 1 N/A
longitude_bnds longitude bounds grid cells N/A float N/A N/A 1 N/A
SIarea Fraction of ocean grid cell covered with sea-ice [0 to 1]. CF Standard Name Table v73: 'Area fraction' is the fraction of a grid cell's horizontal area that has some characteristic of interest. It is evaluated as the area of interest divided by the grid cell area. It may be expressed as a fraction, a percentage, or any other dimensionless representation of a fraction. Sea ice area fraction is area of the sea surface occupied by sea ice. It is also called 'sea ice concentration'. 'Sea ice' means all ice floating in the sea which has formed from freezing sea water, rather than by other processes such as calving of land ice to form icebergs. https://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-standard-names/73/build/cf-standard-name-table.html. Defined using CF Standard Name Table v73: 'Area fraction' is the fraction of a grid cell's horizontal area that has some characteristic of interest. It is evaluated as the area of interest divided by the grid cell area. It may be expressed as a fraction, a percentage, or any other dimensionless representation of a fraction. Sea ice area fraction is area of the sea surface occupied by sea ice. It is also called 'sea ice concentration'. 'Sea ice' means all ice floating in the sea which has formed from freezing sea water and precipitation, rather than by other processes such as calving of land ice to form icebergs. https://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-standard-names/73/build/cf-standard-name-table.html 1 float 9.96921E+36 0 to 9.700001 1 N/A
sIceLoad Total mass of sea-ice and snow in a model grid cell averaged over model grid cell area. Note: sIceLoad is used to correct model sea level anomaly, ETAN, to calculate dynamic sea surface height, SSH, and sea surface height without the inverted barometer (IB correction), SSHNOIBC. In the model, sea-ice is treated as floating above the sea level with ETAN tracing the location of the ocean-ice interface. Consequently, sea-ice growth in the model lowers ETAN and sea-ice melting raises ETAN. Dynamic sea surface height is obtained by correcting ETAN by the weight of ice and snow directly above following Archimedes’ principle. kg m-2 float 9.96921E+36 -0.015558384 to 87299.36 1 N/A
SIheff Sea-ice thickness averaged over the entire model grid cell, including open water where sea-ice thickness is zero. Note: sea-ice thickness over the ICE-COVERED fraction of the grid cell is SIheff/SIarea m float 9.96921E+36 0 to 90.00519 1 N/A
SIhsnow Snow thickness averaged over the entire model grid cell, including open water where snow thickness is zero. Note: snow thickness over the ICE-COVERED fraction of the grid cell is SIhsnow/SIarea m float 9.96921E+36 -0.0047255056 to 25.671638 1 N/A
time center time of averaging period hours since 1992-01-01T12:00:00 int N/A N/A 1 N/A
time_bnds Start and end times of averaging period. N/A int N/A N/A 1 N/A
You're viewing 10 of 10