About the DAAC

The NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) processes, archives, documents, and distributes data from NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites, airborne campaigns, and field measurement programs. The NSIDC DAAC focuses on the cryosphere and related topics, including snow, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, frozen ground, soil moisture, and climate interactions.

The NSIDC DAAC is part of NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). The DAACs, managed by NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System Project (ESDIS), offer thousands of Earth system science data products and associated services to a wide community of users. Each DAAC serves one or more specific Earth science disciplines and provides its user community with data products, data information, user services, and tools unique to its particular science.

If you have questions need assistance, please contact NSIDC User Services.

Citing DAAC Data

NASA data are not copyrighted; however, as a condition of use, when you publish DAAC data or results derived from the data, we require that you cite the data sets in your work with a formal citation. A citation acknowledges our data contributors, and allows us to track the use and impact of our data. It also helps us report data distribution activity to NASA, and to assist others who may contact us about data that are referenced in publications.

How to Cite DAAC Data

• Include a citation in the References section of your publication.
• On each data set's landing page, you can find a specific citation that can be copied and pasted into your publication.

Example:

Author's Name. Year of Publication. Title of Data Set and Version Number, [indicate subset used¹]. Boulder, Colorado USA: NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. DOI². Access Date.

¹This field is for temporal or spatial coverage of the data used. It is necessary to enable a micro-citation or the ability to refer to the specific data used—the exact files, granules, records, etc. For example, March to June 2004, or 84°N, 75°W; 44°N, 10°W.

²Use the complete DOI URL when adding a DOI to the citation. Example: https://dx.doi.org/10.7265/N5N877Q9

Citation Example

Ashcroft, P. and F. J. Wentz. 2013. AMSR-E/Aqua L2A Global Swath Spatially-Resampled Brightness Temperatures, Version 3. [indicate subset used]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. https://dx.doi.org/10.5067/AMSR-E/AE_L2A.003. Accessed July 18, 2015.

Use and Credits of Photographs and Satellite Images

You may download and use photographs and images on this site free of charge. Some photographs and images may have specific copyright restrictions and credits, noted at the point of access. Photographs and imagery may be used for commercial purposes, but may not be re-sold.

• General credit format: "Credit: NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, University of Colorado Boulder."
• Satellite image: "Credit: Imagery NASA MODIS instrument, courtesy NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center.”
• In captions, you may use the acronym “NASA NSIDC DAAC” instead of spelling out the words.

User Working Group

The NSIDC DAAC has a User Working Group (UWG) of scientists from the fields of research that the DAAC serves. The working group also includes the DAAC Scientist, the NASA Cryosphere Scientist, and the EOSDIS Project Scientist.

Objectives of the UWG:

• Provide ongoing guidance to the DAAC regarding data holdings, system capabilities, documentation, data formats, and communications procedures which serve the needs of the scientific community.
• Recommend and implement a strategy for prioritization of data holdings and level of support to be provided by the DAAC to the user community.
• Serve as a community representative testing ground to evaluate the effectiveness of procedures and protocols for surveying DAAC data holdings, and ordering and acquiring data sets in an efficient manner.

Feedback may be sent to the UWG Chair, Dr. Gina Henderson (ghenders@usna.edu), or DAAC UWG Coordinator Donna Scott (dscott@nsidc.org) at NSIDC.

Current Membership