• NSIDC's website will undergo planned maintenance on Wednesday, January 15, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (U.S. Mountain Time). During this time, the NSIDC.org website and most NSIDC data access may be briefly unavailable.

permafrost
layer of soil or rock, at some depth beneath the surface, in which the temperature has been continuously below 0°C for at least several years; it exists where summer heating fails to reach the base of the layer of frozen ground.
Topic(s):
climatology and meteorology
frozen ground or permafrost