The global AMSR sea ice concentration climate data record version 3

OSI-458 is the third major version of the Global AMSR Sea Ice Concentration Climate Data Record (SIC CDR v3.0). The previous two versions have been released by the ESA CCI Sea Ice projects, while OSI SAF has now taken over the responsibility to maintain this data record.

OSI-458 is a full reprocessing of sea ice concentration, with improved algorithms and an upgraded processing chain, covering the period 1978.10.01 to 2020.12.31. The sea ice concentration is computed from the AMSR-E (2002.06-2011.10) and AMSR 2 (2012.07-2020.12) instruments, as well as ECMWF ERA5.

The basic principles and methodologies that were the backbone of the previous version are also on board OSI-458 (e.g. atmospheric correction of brightness temperature with NWP re-analysis data, dynamic tie-points, uncertainties, etc.) but these were partly revisited through dedicated R&D in the OSISAF project and ESA CCI Sea Ice projects.

More details of these data records are provided in the Product User Manual (PUM), Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) and Scientific Validation Report (SVR).