What’s happening at NSIDC?
Photo of Stockje Glacier, from the ROCS @ NSIDC collections. Reid, Harry Fielding. 1984. Stockje Glacier: From the Glacier photograph collection. Boulder, Colorado, USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology. Digital Media.
Each month, NSIDC presents highlights of our activities and accomplishments. Learn how we are addressing challenges in data management, investigating current questions in the cryosphere, and developing innovative ways to add value for our data and information users.
Data across disciplines
At NSIDC, researchers study Arctic sea ice using data from satellites. But those data just provide one view of the ice cover. Arctic biologists, climate scientists, hunters, and ship captains all use data on sea ice to inform their work. NSIDC data expert Mark Parsons said, “Think about just a simple term like ‘ice edge.’ Different communities define that in different ways.” Researchers who use satellite data define the edge of the sea ice pack as where less than fifteen…[Read the full story]
A census of moving ice
Researchers in Boulder and Zurich are gaining ground in compiling the most extensive record of Earth’s constantly changing glaciers. Using data from aerial photographs and maps, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) have added 25,000 more glaciers to World Glacier Inventory (WGI), bringing the total to 132,890. The inventory now describes 85 percent of Earth’s estimated 160,000 glaciers, or 70 percent (470,000 square kilometers) of the total estimated area covered by…[Read the full story]
Mapping IceBridge
The NASA Operation IceBridge mission ensures continuous scientific observations over Earth’s polar regions during a period of unprecedented change. The mission collects airborne remote sensing measurements to bridge the gap between the NASA Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), which stopped collecting data in 2009, and the upcoming ICESat-2 mission planned for 2016. ICESat carried the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument, which was unique in its ability to measure the elevation of ice sheets, ice shelves, and glaciers,…[Read the full story]
A case of the vapors
When it comes to climate change in the Arctic, melting sea ice and warming oceans often get the most attention. Yet in the atmosphere, another watery component is changing as well: water vapor. As sea ice extent and duration decrease and air temperatures rise, the increasingly open Arctic Ocean is subject to even more evaporation, pumping more water vapor into the atmosphere, making it more humid. In addition, warmer air is capable of holding more water, so increasing humidity over…[Read the full story]
Looking back on the International Polar Year
“In fifty years time the data resulting from IPY 2007-2008 may be seen as the most important single outcome of the programme.” —A Framework for the International Polar Year 2007-2008 (ICSU, 2004) Past International Polar Years left exciting legacies for generations of scientists: the first synoptic polar observations, confirmation of the continental drift, unprecedented international cooperation, and even the foundations for the Antarctic Treaty. What will be the legacies of the 2007-2008 IPY? Among those legacies are lessons on collaborative…[Read the full story]
A Climate Data Record for sea ice
The rising interest in Arctic sea ice is the inverse of its decline: less ice equates to more demand for reliable data on sea ice conditions. But with decades of data from multiple satellite sensors and multiple research groups, where do researchers turn for the most reliable long-term view? In answer, NSIDC has produced a Climate Data Record for sea ice concentration, an important indicator of sea ice health and Arctic climate. The demand for data The National Research Council…[Read the full story]
Greening snow and ice
Snow and ice by definition need to stay cold, and so do scientific data about snow and ice. While computer room air conditioning is not the kind of cold that NSIDC normally specializes in, NSIDC has figured out how to keep its computers and data cool with a lower carbon footprint. The NSIDC Green Data Center, a first-of-its-kind system, has cut the energy required to cool its data center by more than 90%, and stands as a model for others…[Read the full story]
Working the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
On September 21 to 23, more than 90 Antarctic scientists, data experts, writers, and students gathered at Sylvan Dale Ranch, nestled in the rolling plains near Loveland, Colorado. This three-day retreat brought diverse research disciplines from around the world to focus on rapid changes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and related areas of other ice caps. Unlike most of the ice in Antarctica, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet rests on bedrock below sea level. In the 1970s, theoretical…[Read the full story]
Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis: Near-real-time data for all
As Arctic sea ice declines towards its lowest extent for the year, people around the world are watching. Will the ice extent break another record this year? What would it mean if it does break a record? If it doesn’t break a record, does that mean the sea ice is recovering? Many people will find their answers to these questions on the NSIDC Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis Web site. Interested readers can follow the ups and downs of…[Read the full story]
A catalog of the cryosphere
Today scientists study the Earth with satellites and computers, but their interest in past climate precedes these digital tools. So while NSIDC is best known for its massive archives of digital Earth science data, it also holds an archive of non-digital, or analog materials. Journals, photographs, films, and publications help document the state of Earth’s frozen regions stretching more than 100 years in the past, as well as the history of science and exploration in cold regions. NSIDC has been…[Read the full story]
Winds of change
Scientists look at changes in the extent of Arctic sea ice at summer’s end—the seasonal minimum—as an indicator of climate change. Since 1979, that low mark is averaging eleven percent lower each decade. Will that downward slide continue? Scientists think yes, so the next question is how fast: will it be at a steady rate, will it slow down, or will it speed up? In any one year, the Arctic´s sea ice cover can get a nudge from unusually warm…[Read the full story]
A new twist on climate communication
When the general public reads news about the changing climate, shrinking glaciers, and declining sea ice, they often have questions about what they see. How do scientists get this data? How do we know that climate change is a real phenomenon? How much can scientists do to predict the future of the climate? In January, NSIDC launched a new Web site to help answer those questions: Icelights: Your burning questions about ice and climate. The idea for Icelights grew out…[Read the full story]
Spanning the satellite generations
High above the clouds, some twenty NASA satellites circle Earth each day, measuring an astounding range of phenomena, from the minute soot particles that make up the plume of a forest fire, to the movement of massive plates of the Earth’s crust. Put together, the data are an impressive long-term record of observations on Earth’s environment and climate for the last 50 years. NASA is making sure these data, called Earth science data records (ESDRs), remain valid across old and…[Read the full story]
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Recent Highlights
- Data across disciplines
- A census of moving ice
- Mapping IceBridge
- A case of the vapors
- Looking back on the International Polar Year
- A Climate Data Record for sea ice
- Greening snow and ice
- Working the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
- Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis: Near-real-time data for all
- A catalog of the cryosphere
- Winds of change
- A new twist on climate communication
Archives
See Also
NSIDC Annual Report
NSIDC Annual Reports give an overview of our accomplishments and activities for the year.
