Simulated Sea Ice Dataset for ESA Earth Explorer CryoRad

Files 20240408T004800.nc–20240408T231225.nc contain geophysical fields and simulated brightness temperatures over the Arctic for the potential Earth Explorer 12 CryoRad mission configuration. Each file represents one full satellite orbit, timestamped by its midpoint time on April 8th 2024. Every orbit file includes nine microwave channels at 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, and 2.0 GHz, and covers a swath width of approximately 160 km.The geophysical variables comprise:sea‐ice thicknesssnow thicknesssnow temperatureair temperaturesea‐ice concentrationsea‐ice agesea‐ice temperaturesea‐ice salinityBrightness temperatures (TBs) were simulated using the Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) model configured with three snow layers over one sea-ice layer. All simulations use the same geophysical inputs, originally provided by the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI). After simulation, each variable (both geophysical and TB) was convolved to the footprint resolution of its respective channel, ensuring channel-consistent spatial representation. The original, unconvolved geophysical variables are included in each file with the suffix _orig.The accompanying GIF illustrates the temporal progression of Arctic coverage achieved by the provided sequence of orbits over a single day.