News & Stories
Across the globe, snow and ice play a vital role in regulating Earth’s climate and providing freshwater resources to people, plants, and animals.
As Earth’s frozen regions change rapidly, NSIDC is committed to growing its research and open access data to better understand these changes. Read about NSIDC research and its contribution to science and policy making. Check out spotlights on how to use NSIDC data, tools, and resources. Learn about how we steward data and collaborate with scientists and organizations across the world to understand how the frozen parts of Earth affect the rest of the planet and impact society.
News and stories
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The Global Lake and River Ice Phenology Database (G01377), archived by NOAA@NSIDC, has some of the oldest observations on record at NSIDC. The database includes observations dating back to the ninth century.
On November 30, 2022, the White House released a guidance document that identifies ELOKA as an example of a successful data management program that serves both Indigenous communities and federal agencies.
If you have ever felt unsure of what to do next when finding, downloading, or working with a data product distributed by NSIDC, then our user resources are for you.
On December 10, 1972, the world of sea ice data changed forever. For the first time in history, as the Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) launched aboard the NASA Nimbus-5 satellite, scientists gained the ability to track changes in sea ice cover over the Polar Regions every day via passive microwave data. Today, they can piece together a half century’s worth of data from several instruments and satellite missions, including ESMR, to better understand how global warming is affecting Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.
Through partnerships with community members and vital climate information recorded by volunteers in local observer networks, NSIDC's Arctic Rain on Snow Study (AROSS) aims to better understand rain on snow events and other winter precipitation changes—with a focus on how they impact peoples in the Arctic.
In the summer of 2022, a sixth module with videos, the Evenki Visual Histories, was added to the existing Evenki Atlas—the first online cultural atlas of Indigenous Knowledge from Siberia, Russia.