Thirty-four data sets from the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), and Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite/Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (ICESat/GLAS) collections are now available in the NASA Earthdata Cloud environment. These data sets will still continue to be available to users via their current and familiar workflows, while allowing users the opportunity to try new ways to download and access these data in the cloud.
Earthdata Cloud is NASA’s archive of Earth observations, hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS) alongside related tools and services from Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). The cloud offers a scalable way to address storage, network, and data movement concerns, while offering flexibility to users. Users who work with large data volumes may find it especially beneficial to move their workflows to the cloud for more efficient data access and processing.
As part of a larger Earthdata Cloud migration effort, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) DAAC is in the process of migrating their data products to Earthdata Cloud, which is expected to take several years. Data will still be freely available to download, and there will be no cost for users who do want to download data from Earthdata Cloud. There is also no cost for the S3 access method, where users access NSIDC DAAC data stored in S3 buckets in the Earthdata Cloud and download the data to an EC2 instance.
NSIDC DAAC has assembled several resources to help users find and make use of this first group of Earthdata Cloud data sets, all of which can be easily found on the NSIDC DAAC Earthdata Cloud Data Collection page. Resources include a set of Frequently Asked Questions about the Earthdata Cloud migration, and what it means for users, and a NASA Earthdata Cloud Data Access Guide, which walks users through the initial steps on how to access data in the cloud.
The NSIDC DAAC User Services Office (USO) is also available to provide more personalized support for users who have questions about accessing data in the cloud. Alternatively, users can make use of the Earthdata Forum to ask questions about Earthdata Cloud and interact with subject-matter experts from NASA’s DAACs.
The NSIDC DAAC will continue to provide updates, resources, and guidance for users as its data sets are migrated to Earthdata Cloud over the next few years. For any questions or comments, please contact nsidc@nsidc.org.