Our Research

Daily monitoring of surface melting in Antarctica resumes for the 2022-2023 season. Early melting through November has been limited to the region near the northern Larsen Ice Shelf, the Wilkins Ice Shelf, and an unusual melt event in Wilkes Land and Northern Victoria Land.

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. 

While most of the 2022 Greenland melt season was near average, September set records for high temperatures, melt extent, and ice loss.

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.

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.