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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The Polarstern and the Fedorov sidled up to each other to exchange personnel and equipment via cranes on deck. Sea ice floats between them. Credit: Sean Horvath
Feature Story
An advisee of National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) scientist Julienne Stroeve, Sean Horvath, a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder was one of twenty students chosen from six countries to take part in the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) School. This is his experience.
Screenshot of the Evenki atlas
ELOKA Spotlight

As part of the ELOKA mission of ensuring data sovereignty for Arctic residents, ELOKA helped create online atlases for two groups of Indigenous people: the Yup’ik in Alaska and the Evenki in Siberia, Russia.

Graph of declining snow cover
Analysis - Snow Today
February continued to see a trend of below average snow cover across the Western United States. Late January and early February storms replenished snow cover in some areas, but drought continues to impact California.
This maps show trend for Arctic Sea Ice as part of the Sea Ice Analysis Tool
Feature Story
A new visualization tool, the Sea Ice Analysis Tool, has just been added to the NSIDC Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis (ASINA) website that helps users customize the satellite data further, creating graphs or maps that show changes based on their chosen criteria.