Our Research

Spring melting over Greenland was near the long-term average, and concentrated along the southern coast, where extent was slightly above average.

In September 2019, the research vessel Polarstern set off to drift with sea ice and study all aspects of the Arctic climate system for 13 months. NSIDC scientist Julienne Strove joined the international team of researchers on the coldest, darkest portion of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC). This is how she prepared.

Snow-covered area and snow cover days in the Western United States were below average in May 2020. The vast majority of snow monitoring sites in the Western United States no longer reported a snowpack by the end of the month.

Snow-covered area and snow cover days were near average in April 2020. Snow-covered area continued to decline in April 2020 but was bolstered by storms in California in early April and in Colorado in late April.

To protect knowledge of their land and culture, Yup’ik elders work with the Exchange of Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA), a NSIDC program, to immortalize their place names into an online atlas that continues to grow and evolve to this day.

April 1 is historically viewed as nearing the maximum Snow Water Equivalent (SWE). The Rockies show less than a 50 percent probability of reaching maximum SWE in March while the Sierra Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico...