The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-E/Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR-E/AMSR2) unified “Sea Ice Concentration (25 km)” layer displays the percent of sea ice concentration in the polar regions as a daily composite of the AMSR2 1:30 a.m. ascending and 1:30 p.m. descending half-orbit passes, at a spatial resolution of 25 km.

Sea ice concentration describes the relative amount of area covered by ice, compared to some reference area. This layer shows the relative amount of sea ice as a percentage for each 25 km x 25 km grid cell.

The AMSR2 instrument is a conically scanning passive microwave radiometer. This instrument senses microwave radiation for twelve channels and six frequencies ranging from 6.9 GHz to 89 GHz on board the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Global Change Observation Mission – Water 1 (GCOM-W1) satellite.

This product uses the JAXA AMSR2 Level-1R input TBs which are calibrated (unified) across the JAXA AMSR-E and AMSR2 Level-1R products.

References: AMSR-E/AMSR2 Unified L3 Daily 25 km Brightness Temperatures & Sea Ice Concentration Polar Grids, Version 1