Antarctic Coastal Sea Ice Exposure Index from Satellite Data

360 longitudinal wedges are analyzed around Antarctica to calculate a coastal exposure index ranging from 0 to 360. The index is derived from NASA's Sea Ice Concentrations data, updated yearly from 1979 to 2015. It was developed by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre using passive microwave satellite data.

Use Cases

• Analyze long-term trends in the coastal_exposure_index to study Antarctic sea ice retreat or expansion over the 1979-2015 period.
• Correlate the index value with other climate variables to understand drivers of sea ice concentration changes around the continent.
• Use the 360-degree longitudinal wedge data to identify specific sectors of the Antarctic coastline experiencing persistent exposure or ice cover.
• Validate regional climate or sea ice models by comparing simulated coastal exposure patterns against the satellite-derived index.

Strengths

• Index provides a continent-wide summary metric spanning 37 years from 1979 to 2015.
• Data resolution covers 360 longitudinal wedges for a detailed spatial perspective around Antarctica.
• Derived from a long-running, authoritative NASA passive microwave satellite data record.

Limitations

• Data ends in 2015, creating a temporal gap for recent climate analysis.
• Index is a derived, simplified metric; original sea ice concentration data is needed for granular analysis.
• Presence of '-' values indicates missing satellite data for some years, creating gaps in the time series.

Provenance

Source

NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS).

Collection Method

Derived index calculated from passive microwave satellite data where sea ice concentration exceeds 15%.

Time Range

1979 to 2015

Freshness

Yearly updates ended in 2015; dataset is not current.

Geography

Coastal region of Antarctica.