NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC)
Enabling researchers and data users to better understand how changes in the cryosphere impact our planet.
Catch up on news and stories about how NSIDC DAAC data are being used in research, as well as spotlights on how you can use the data, tools and resources we offer. If you are using NSIDC DAAC data in your research, teaching, or some other way, let us know and we may feature your work in our next article. Share your story with us today.
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In 1993, NASA contracted the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder to steward snow- and ice-related data, forming the NSIDC DAAC. The year 2023 marks 30 years that NSIDC has operated the NASA snow and ice DAAC.
As NASA moves their Earth science data over to the Earthdata Cloud, a commercial cloud environment hosted in Amazon Web Services, the NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) are shoring up resources to help users adopt a cloud-based workflow as smoothly as possible. One such resource is the NASA Earthdata Cloud Cookbook, a learning-oriented resource to support scientific researchers who use NASA Earth data as NASA migrates data to the cloud.
The ICESat-2 mission provides data sets on land ice and sea ice, and those data sets have been applied to myriad studies of Earth’s frozen regions, but ICESat-2 data offerings do not end there. Researchers can also use ICESat-2 observations to study surface-height changes in land and vegetation, inland water bodies, ocean surfaces, and atmospheric features.
In 2011, a group of scientists in southeastern Greenland discovered a massive perennial firn aquifer—a year-round, water-bearing layer within the firn. Since then, scientists have discovered more areas around the world bearing this ice feature, but questions remain to their development and impact.
In March 2023, NSIDC's Alan Bourgeois and Jesslyn Di Fiori headed to Fairbanks, Alaska, for the NASA SnowEx 2023 field campaign, or as they described it, “a crash course in snow science.” Their participation in this campaign provided a unique experience to participate in the creation of data.
NSIDC’s Nenana Ice Classic: Tanana River Ice Annual Breakup Dates data set provides a record of ice-breakup dates related to an annual contest that started in 1917 and remains a heated competition over a century later.