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These articles provide answers to frequently asked questions related to Earth's frozen realms. Questions range from general background information and detailed science processes to the data gathered and archived at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and its data management programs including NOAA@NSIDC, the NASA NSIDC Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC), and the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA). If you have a question that is not answered here, please contact NSIDC User Services.
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On the landmasses surrounding the Arctic Ocean, tundra typically thrives. Tundra landscapes consist of low-profile, cold-adapted plants that eke out their tiny lives in short, cool summers. Since the early 1980s, though, satellites and ground-based
Besides occurring on the opposite side of the globe, Antarctic sea ice differs from Arctic sea ice in a couple of respects. First, the Arctic is an ocean basin largely surrounded by land whereas the Antarctic is a continent surrounded by ocean, and
A tipping point is a critical threshold where an incremental change could push a system over the edge to a new state. Two types of tipping points exist. One involves a rapid transition, like what happens when a canoe rocks back and forth. Eventually
Satellites have continuously monitored Earth’s polar regions since November 1978. Over that period, Arctic sea ice has declined. Compared to the 1981 to 2010 average, sea ice extent has declined just over 2 percent per decade in March and April, and
Climate models, also known as general circulation models or GCMs, use computers to simulate Earth’s climate. Scientists use climate models to predict weather, but unlike weather forecasts, the timespan is over decades or centuries rather than hours
Over the course of the satellite record, Arctic sea ice extent has declined. Declines have been observed throughout the year, but they have been most pronounced at the time of the annual minimum each September. Lower sea ice minimums raise a question