Arctic Landfast Sea Ice Monthly Coverage, 1953-1998

Arctic Landfast Sea Ice 1953-1998, Version 1 contains monthly mean sea ice concentration data from the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) and the Canadian Ice Service (CIS). The data are formatted as percent area covered on a longitude-latitude grid with 0.2° resolution and are provided in NetCDF format. Coverage spans three distinct periods: AARI-only data from 1953-1967, combined AARI and CIS data from 1968-1990, and CIS-only data from 1991-1998.

Use Cases

• [Analyzing decadal trends in landfast ice extent] based on [monthly mean percent coverage from 1953 to 1998]
• [Validating sea ice models] based on [gridded observational data from two major sources (AARI and CIS)]
• [Studying spatial patterns of coastal ice stability] based on [0.2° resolution longitude-latitude grid]
• [Investigating data continuity across source transitions] based on [the three distinct temporal ranges with different data providers]

Strengths

• Provides a continuous 46-year record (1953-1998) of Arctic landfast sea ice, a key climate variable.
• Integrates data from two authoritative sources, AARI and CIS, for the 1968-1990 period.
• Offers data in a standard scientific format (NetCDF) with documented missing value conventions.

Limitations

• Documentation was provided solely by the contributor and was not reviewed by NSIDC, which may limit support.
• The dataset's last update date conflicts across platforms (1998 vs. 2026), suggesting metadata may not reflect data currency.
• Specific column names and row/record counts are not provided in the available metadata.

Provenance

Source

Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) and Canadian Ice Service (CIS), processed by Christof S. König.

Collection Method

Monthly mean landfast sea ice data gathered from source institutes and gridded to a 0.2° longitude-latitude resolution.

Time Range

1953 to 1998

Freshness

1998-12-31 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Arctic region