News & Stories
Across the globe, snow and ice play a vital role in regulating Earth’s climate and providing freshwater resources to people, plants, and animals.
As Earth’s frozen regions change rapidly, NSIDC is committed to growing its research and open access data to better understand these changes. Read about NSIDC research and its contribution to science and policy making. Check out spotlights on how to use NSIDC data, tools, and resources. Learn about how we steward data and collaborate with scientists and organizations across the world to understand how the frozen parts of Earth affect the rest of the planet and impact society.
News and stories
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Analysis - Ice Sheets Today
The Antarctic Peninsula has had an intense melt season with above average melting persisting through much of February. Saturated snow from a high melt year and low sea ice in Bellingshausen Sea have led to a series of minor calving events on the Wilkins Ice Shelf. Elsewhere in Antarctica, melting was near average.
Ask a Scientist
By preserving evidence of ancient temperatures and greenhouse gases, ice cores show scientists how much our planet has changed.
Analysis - Sea Ice Today
Arctic sea ice has likely reached its maximum extent for the year, at 14.62 million square kilometers (5.64 million square miles) on March 6.
News Release
Arctic sea ice has likely reached its maximum extent for the year, at 14.62 million square kilometers (5.64 million square miles) on March 6, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. The 2023 maximum is the fifth lowest in the 45-year satellite record.
Spotlight
As NASA moves their data, including data collections managed and housed at their 12 distributed active archive centers (DAACs), over to the Earthdata Cloud, the organization will lean on Openscapes. To support NASA DAAC researchers during the data migration to the cloud, Openscapes developed the Openscapes Framework, a scalable leadership training and community-building framework which includes three components: engaging DAAC mentors, empowering science research teams, and amplifying open science leaders.
Analysis - Snow Today
Continuing the trend of recent months, the western United States received significant snowfall in February 2023, helping to improve drought conditions in the West. Despite dominance of a La Niña conditions, current snowpack patterns resemble those characteristic of El Niño years.