Simulated Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Parcel Tracks

Simulated 12-Month Ice Parcel Tracks from Gridded Sea Ice Motion, Version 1 provides tracer parcels modeling sea ice advection paths in the Northern Hemisphere. The dataset, produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, tracks simulated ice parcels identified in 25 km grid cells with sea ice concentration above 15% using daily motion vectors. Each row represents a distinct simulated ice parcel, with columns for EASE-grid x, y coordinates and weekly sea ice concentration values over a 12-month period.

Use Cases

• Analyzing sea ice advection paths using weekly EASE-grid x and y coordinate columns.
• Modeling ice parcel melt events by tracking weekly sea ice concentration values over a year.
• Studying Northern Hemisphere sea ice motion and dispersal patterns from simulated parcel trajectories.
• Validating sea ice models against gridded, simulated tracer data with a 15% concentration threshold.

Strengths

• Data is derived from the established Polar Pathfinder Daily 25 km EASE-Grid Sea Ice Motion Vectors (NSIDC-0116).
• Simulation uses a specific 15% sea ice concentration threshold for parcel identification.
• Provides a full 12-month tracking period for each simulated ice parcel.

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts exist: the last updated date is reported as 2026-03-12 on Data.gov but 2022-10-01 on NASA Earthdata.
• The exact number of rows (simulated parcels) and the complete column list are unknown.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Sea ice parcels are identified in 25 km EASE-Grid cells and tracked daily using NSIDC-0116 motion vectors, with weekly location updates.

Time Range

12-month tracking period

Freshness

2026-03-12

Geography

Northern Hemisphere