25 files, last one added on Jun 23, 2011

These images are from the Russian North Pole Drifting station program. Of all Russian scientific programs in the Arctic, the North Pole Drifting Station program ranks among the most valuable to today's polar researchers. For many years, The program was the only source for meteorological, oceanographic, and atmospheric data from the central arctic basin. The first drifting station was established on ice near the North Pole in May 1937. In subsequent years, stations were generally constructed on multiyear ice floes less than 2 km in diameter and 3 m to 5 m thick. Usually, a starting location to the northeast of Wrangel Island (about 175 degrees West) was chosen for the station. Station personnel generally debarked on the ice in spring after being transported by air, but on occasion personnel were delivered to the site by icebreaker in autumn. Two and sometimes three stations were in operation at the same time. The last station, NP-31, was shut down in 1991.

What was life like on a Russian North Pole Drifting Station? Scientists from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, were kind enough to lend us photographs taken while on various stations.

Please acknowledge any use of these Gallery images by citing them as follows:
Photographs from the NSIDC Arctic Climatology and Meteorology Primer, courtesy V. Radionov, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia.

51 files, last one added on Feb 14, 2013

Photos of submarines and experiments from SCICEX 98 and 99.

10 files, last one added on Nov 29, 2011

SIDC scientist Shari Gearheard traveled to Nepal with a group of Inuit from Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada. The team exchanged knowledge and ideas with Nepalese and Tsumbas, residents of the Tsum Valley, a high alpine region experiencing rapid environmental change, much like the Arctic.

8 files, last one added on Mar 20, 2012

SnowNet is a program with a focus on measuring winter precipitation and the distribution of snow in the Arctic. To provide insight to this age old problem, numerous instruments and methods have been applied during the program, for example, traditional meteorological stations with load sensors to determine snow mass and sonic ranges to determine depth, experimental low-cost sonic depth rangers, extensive manual measurement of snow depth over gridded areas and transects, ground-based and airborne LiDAR measurements, snow pits, different snow coring approaches (Federal, Adirondak and SnowHydro samplers), bulk container excavations, and differential GPS measurements of snow depth.

The field campaign of 2012 was based around a four-pronged attack of the snow spatial distribution problem. Manual measurements of snow depth were performed using Magnaprobes (1) and highly accurate differential GPS (which compares location and elevation to a local base station). Meanwhile, other team members undertook a series of winter scans of snow surface elevation using both ground-based and airborne LiDAR. Future summer (snow-free) LiDAR scans of the ground surface elevation will be subtracted from the winter scans to give a snow depth. Along the way, many snow pits were dug to see snowpack stratigraphy and water content was computed via the pits and snow coring.

The distribution of snow plays a significant role in the energy balance of the Arctic and is a dominant force in terrestrial hydrology. The data collected as part of this program will be used to better assessments of snow climatology, improve our process understanding of snow and lead to better modeling efforts.

12 files, last one added on May 23, 2012