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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This plot shows the departure from average air temperature in the Arctic at the 925 hPa level, in degrees Celsius, from August 15 to 31, 2023. Yellows and reds indicate higher than average temperatures; blues and purples indicate lower than average temperatures.
Analysis - Sea Ice Today

Both Arctic and Antarctic sea ice appear to be heading toward their respective seasonal limits, reaching the lowest extent at the end of summer in the north, and the highest extent as winter ends in the south.

Asperitas clouds linger over the southern Greenland town of Narsaq on August 22, 2023.
Analysis - Ice Sheets Today
A strong weather pattern from August 21 to 24 caused widespread melting across Greenland. This unusually late summer melt event was caused by a high and low air pressure configuration known as an omega pattern because of its jet stream shape.
Research huts in mountains
Spotlight
The Contribution to High Asia Runoff (CHARIS) project began in 2012 and ended in 2019. The project aimed to distinguish between input from seasonal snow melt and glacier ice melt to High Asia rivers.
Lago Greve photograph taken from the International Space Station
Spotlight
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.