Our Research

Using NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) data archived at the National Snow and Ice Data Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC), a research team has brought drought forecasting to near real-time.

A newly published study has mapped glacial debris across the Greater Caucasus, the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian Seas. The study found an increasing trend in glacial debris between 2014 and 2020. The authors relied on GLIMS data at NSIDC in their research.

As darkness extends southward across the Arctic, sea ice has advanced to much of the Russian shoreline, but growth has been particularly slow in the Barents and Kara Seas. In the Antarctic, with the onset of spring, the pace of seasonal sea ice loss has increased.

Melissa Van Veen, a member of our partner Tu’dese’cho Wholistic Indigenous Leadership Development (TWILD), spent several days in Finland during Snowchange’s Festival of Northern Fishing Traditions. Read more about her experience.

On September 19, Antarctic sea ice likely reached its annual maximum extent of 17.16 million square kilometers (6.63 million square miles). The 2024 maximum is the second lowest in the 46-year satellite record above only 2023.

Antarctic sea ice has likely reached its maximum extent for the year, at 17.16 million square kilometers (6.63 million square miles) on September 19, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder). The 2024 maximum is the second lowest in the 46-year satellite record.