National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Program: gridded ice concentration maps for the Alaskan Arctic

Pacini, Astrid; Steele, Michael; Schreck, Mary-Beth

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1391-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1391-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1391-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

Research article

|

28 Mar 2025

Research article |

| 28 Mar 2025

National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Program: gridded ice concentration maps for the Alaskan Arctic

Astrid Pacini, Michael Steele, and Mary-Beth Schreck

Data sets

AMSR-E/AMSR2 Unified L3 Daily 25 km Brightness Temperatures & Sea Ice Concentration Polar Grids (AU_SI25, Version 1) T. Markus et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/TRUIAL3WPAUP

Multisensor Analyzed Sea Ice Extent - Northern Hemisphere (MASIE-NH) (G02186, Version 1) U.S. National Ice Center et al. https://doi.org/10.7265/N5GT5K3K

Marine Mammal Watch, Northern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea, July, 2016 Sue Moore https://doi.org/10.18739/A27P8TD2J

Marine Mammal Watch, Northern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea, August-September, 2017 Sue Moore https://doi.org/10.18739/A25Q4RM2M

Underway Sea Ice Observations during SUBICE 2014 Chris Polashenski https://doi.org/10.18739/A2416T03D

Gridded Alaska Sea Ice Program ice concentration data, 2007-2022 A. Pacini et al. https://doi.org/10.18739/A28G8FK4F

AMSR2 ASI sea ice concentration data, Arctic, version 5.4 (NetCDF) (July 2012-December 2018) C. Melsheimer and G. Spreen https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.898399

Short summary

While sea ice concentration data are critically important for climate research, obtaining high-resolution data remains a challenge. Here we present and validate the US National Weather Service Alaska Sea Ice Program (ASIP) ice maps. These maps are shown to be highly accurate when compared to in situ observations and to outperform a passive-microwave-based product, especially at low concentrations. Therefore, ASIP data provide an exciting new tool to study ice conditions in the Pacific Arctic.