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MODIS/Terra Near Real Time (NRT) Coarse Sea Ice Extent 5-Min L2 Swath 5km

Published by NASA/GSFC/EOS/ESDIS/LANCEMODIS | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Metadata Last Checked: February 21, 2026 | Last Modified: 2026-02-17
MODIS/Terra Near Real Time (NRT) Coarse Sea Ice Extent 5-Min L2 Swath 5km (MOD29L2C) data set contains fields for sea ice by reflectance, sea ice by reflectance pixel Quality Assessment (QA), Ice Surface Temperature (IST), IST pixel QA, latitudes, and longitudes in Hierarchical Data Format-Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS) format, along with corresponding metadata. Latitude and longitude geolocation fields are at 5 km resolution, while all other fields are at 1 km resolution. The sea ice algorithm uses a Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) modified for sea ice to distinguish sea ice from open ocean based on reflective and thermal characteristics. Data are stored in HDF-EOS format, and are available from 24 February 2000 to present via FTP. Data can also be obtained in GeoTIFF format by ordering the data through the Data Pool.

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