AbstractAn algorithm has been developed for estimating total ice concentration from spaceborne high-frequency passive microwave instrumentation. The algorithm is intended for use with the coming Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) data giving a spatial resolution of 12 km. It is based on radiation physics and detailed millimetre wave surface signature measurements and can therefore be applied to other similar data. However, due to large effects on the signals caused by time varying atmospheric conditions and radiation properties of the ice, the algorithm is made self-adjusting. The atmospheric effects are implicitly treated as a smooth function of the ice concentration with tie points over open ocean and 100 per cent ice for each orbit. This means that the main errors are due to patches of heavy clouds and ice floes with atypical radiation properties. An error analysis indicates possible errors of the order of 5 percent for concentrations representative for the Arctic Basin, increasing with decreasing concentration.