Nenana Ice Classic: Tanana River Ice Annual Breakup Dates

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Entry ID

NSIDC-0064

Summary

The Nenana river in the Interior of Alaska usually freezes over during October and November. The ice continues to grow throughout the winter accumulating an average maximum thickness of about 110 cm, depending upon winter weather conditions.

The Nenana River Ice Classic competition began in 1917 when railroad engineers bet a total of 800 dollars, winner takes all, guessing the exact time (month, day, hour, minute) ice on the Nenana River would break up. Each year since then, Alaska residents have guessed at the timing of the river breakup. A tripod, connected to an on-shore clock with a string, is planted in two feet of river ice during river freeze-up in October or November. The following spring, the clock automatically stops when the tripod moves as the ice breaks up. The time on the clock is used as the river ice breakup time.

Many factors influence the river ice breakup, such as air temperature, ice thickness, snow cover, wind, water temperature, and depth of water below the ice. Generally, the Nenana river ice breaks up in late April or early May (historically, April 20 to May 20). The time series of the Nenana river ice breakup dates can be used to indicate climate change in the region.

Data Set Citation

Dataset Creator: Nenana Ice Classic
Dataset Title: Nenana Ice Classic: Tanana River Ice Annual Breakup Dates
Dataset Release Place: Boulder, CO U.S.A.
Dataset Publisher: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Online Resource: http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0064.html

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 1917-04-01

Data Resolution

Temporal Resolution: annual

Science Keywords

• Cryosphere Snow/Ice Freeze/Thaw
• Cryosphere Snow/Ice Ice Growth/Melt
• Cryosphere Snow/Ice River Ice
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Snow/Ice Freeze/Thaw
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Snow/Ice Ice Growth/Melt
• Terrestrial Hydrosphere Snow/Ice River Ice

Ancillary Keywords

• EOSDIS
• Nenana Ice Classic
• Nenana River
• NSIDC
• River Ice Breakup
• Tanana River

Platform

• GROUND STATIONS

Instrument

• CLOCKS

Project

• EOSDIS Earth Observing System Data Information System
• ESIP Earth Science Information Partners Program

Data Set Progress

IN WORK

Data Center

National Snow and Ice Data Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0064

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC User Services
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center
Data Center URL: http://nsidc.org/daac/index.html
Data Set ID: NSIDC-0064

Data Center Personnel

Name: NSIDC DAAC User Services
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Distribution

Distribution Media: ftp
Distribution Size: 1 MB
Distribution Format: ascii

Personnel

NSIDC USER SERVICES
Role: TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone: +1 (303) 492-6199
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2468
Email: nsidc@nsidc.org
Contact Address:
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
City: Boulder
Province or State: CO
Postal Code: 80309-0449
Country: USA

Metadata Name and Version

Metadata Name: CEOS IDN DIF
Metadata Version: 9.7

Creation and Review Dates

DIF Creation Date: 1999-09-10
Last DIF Revision Date: 2001-10-04

DIF Text-Only

Directory Interchange Format (DIF) in plain text

DIF XML

Directory Interchange Format (DIF) in Extensible Markup Language (XML)

FGDC HTML

U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)