year mo    data_type region extent   area
1979 10      Goddard      N   9.39   6.11
1980 10      Goddard      N   9.46   6.42
1981 10      Goddard      N   9.19   6.19
1982 10      Goddard      N   9.98   6.60
1983 10      Goddard      N   9.64   6.70
1984 10      Goddard      N   8.84   5.84
1985 10      Goddard      N   8.88   6.03
1986 10      Goddard      N   9.89   6.77
1987 10      Goddard      N   9.29   7.44
1988 10      Goddard      N   9.47   7.47
1989 10      Goddard      N   9.52   6.90
1990 10      Goddard      N   9.35   6.67
1991 10      Goddard      N   9.16   6.70
1992 10      Goddard      N   9.60   7.69
1993 10      Goddard      N   9.19   6.98
1994 10      Goddard      N   9.48   7.17
1995 10      Goddard      N   8.94   5.91
1996 10      Goddard      N   9.39   7.50
1997 10      Goddard      N   8.76   6.39
1998 10      Goddard      N   8.85   6.65
1999 10      Goddard      N   9.10   6.77
2000 10      Goddard      N   8.92   6.64
2001 10      Goddard      N   8.59   6.59
2002 10      Goddard      N   8.81   6.20
2003 10      Goddard      N   8.65   5.93
2004 10      Goddard      N   8.48   6.35
2005 10      Goddard      N   8.45   5.71
2006 10      Goddard      N   8.33   5.74
2007 10      Goddard      N   6.77   4.21
2008 10       PRELIM      N   8.39   5.40
2009 10      NRTSI-G      N   7.50   4.85


Important Notes: 1) The "extent" column includes the area near the pole not
imaged by the sensor. It is assumed to be entirely ice covered with at	least
15% concentration. However, the "area" column excludes the area not  imaged by
the sensor. This area is 1.19 million square kilometers for SMMR  (from the
beginning of the series through June 1987) and 0.31 million  square kilometers
for SSM/I (from July 1987 to present). Therefore, there  is a discontinuity in
the "area" data values in this file at the June/July  1987 boundary. 2) When
insufficient satellite data is available to process the area and extent values,
the data is flagged as -9999. For more information see Processing Steps,
Monthly Mean Ice Concentration in the documentation -
http://nsidc.org/data/docs/noaa/g02135_seaice_index/index.html#processingstep.