Our Research

Arctic sea ice extent tracked at near-record low levels through much of June, hitting daily record low levels from June 20 to 26. Antarctic sea ice averaged third lowest for the month of June. There have been unrecoverable gaps in delivered sea ice data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMI/S). Since the the SSMIS data feed will end July 31, the team will be switching to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR2) passive microwave sensor as the primary data source.

Using decades of satellite snow data from NASA’s NSIDC DAAC, researchers discovered that caribou in the Bathurst herd begin their epic migration just days after Arctic snowmelt begins—revealing a striking and consistent link between thawing landscapes and animal movement. The study highlights how high-resolution, open-access data is uncovering vital patterns in wildlife behavior amid a rapidly changing climate.

The NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC) offers an interactive tool called IceFlow to harmonize nearly 30 years of lidar data.

IceFlow helped harmonize and standardize decades of lidar data for cryosphere research. While the tool has been retired due to low usage, known issues, and its reliance on the soon-to-be-phased-out ECS system, its core functionality lives on through open-source resources.

Snow-covered area in May across the western United States was 9 percent above average, at 105,000 square kilometers (41,000 square miles) of snow cover, ranking twelfth in the 25-year satellite record. Snow-covered area for May was 67,000 square kilometers (25,000 square miles) below 2011, the highest year, and 53,000 square kilometers (21,000 square miles) above 2015, the lowest May on record.