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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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Satellites have continuously monitored sea ice since 1979. To gauge what Arctic sea ice was like before then, scientists use a combination of historical records and proxy measurements such as marine sediment cores. Taken together, these records
Guest post by Mark Serreze, NSIDC Director and Professor, Department of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder The polar vortex is the region of the atmosphere that contains the hemisphere’s cold air, rotating from west to east. In the Northern
Permafrost, also known as frozen ground, is soil that remains at or below 0°C (32°F) for at least two years. When it thaws, permafrost contributes to global warming by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. A breakdown of decomposition In
Like El Niño and La Niña, the Arctic Oscillation (AO) is a big-picture of atmospheric conditions that influence weather. The AO, which alternates between two distinct modes, describes how pressure patterns are distributed over the Arctic region and
We’ve all heard it: Arctic sea ice is melting. Sea ice is thinner year to year and there is less of it. In 2007, scientists observed a nearly 50 percent loss of summer ice as compared to 1980. With such a dramatic shift, what else is taking place in
The Big One The Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012 lifted out of Siberia on August 2, swirling in a counter-clockwise rotation up into the Arctic. As one of the most extreme Arctic cyclones ever recorded, its consumption of an already low sea ice extent