Average monthly sea ice coverage for various PAL LTER sub-regions West of the Antarctic Peninsula derived from passive microwave satellite data, 1978 - June 2024.

Monthly sea ice coverage derived from passive microwave satellite measurements and extracted for various PAL LTER subregions. Several different sea-ice metrics are provided including (1) monthly sea-ice extent, sea-ice area, and open-water area (km^2) extracted for the greater WAP region (from the AP to 80W) and for 3 PAL LTER grid regions: the original PAL grid (000-900 lines), the PAL 'DSR' grid (200-600 lines), and the PAL 'new' grid (-200 to 600 lines); and (2) monthly sea-ice concentration (%) extracted for small PAL subregions, including the nominal penguin foraging areas (~200km by ~200km) southwest of King George Island (KGI), Anvers, Avian and Charcot islands, as well as for Marguerite Bay (~140km by ~140km) (inland of the area defined for Avian).