NOAA@NSIDC GeoRSS feed

August 2008: New Melt Pond Data Set

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:08:01 -0700

The Arctic Sea Ice Melt Pond Statistics and Maps, 1999, 2000, and 2001 data set is now available. This data set consists of tables of pond coverage and size statistics for 500 m square cells within 10 km square images along with the surface type maps from which the pond statistics were derived. One-meter surface type maps with either two (water and ice) or three (pond, open water, and ice) classes were created using supervised maximum likelihood classification of high-resolution visible band imagery.

July 2008: Russian Arctic Sea Ice, 1933-2006

Thu, 3 Jul 2008 13:08:01 -0700

The Sea Ice Edge Location and Extent in the Russian Arctic, 1933-2006 data set is now available. The data are derived from sea ice charts from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), St. Petersburg, Russia. The data set consists of edge locations and monthly and seasonal mean sea ice extents for each of the marginal seas in the Russian Arctic.

June 2008: World Glacier Monitoring Service Visitor

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:10:01 -0700

Michael Zemp, from the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich, Switzerland, is visiting NSIDC for two months. Michael will help us improve the quality of the records in the World Glacier Inventory.

June 2008: Daily Plots of Sea Ice Extent Now Available

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:13:01 -0700

Daily plots of sea ice extent are now available from the Sea Ice Index Web site.

April 2008: Glacier Photograph Updates from Peru, the IGY and the NPS Glacier Survey Reports

Over 79 glacier photos from Peru taken in the 1950s by Fred D. Ayres have been added to the Glacier Photograph Collection in addition to National Park Service glacier survey reports from 1932-1952 and photographs taken during the International Geophysical Year.

April 2008: New Temperature and Precipitation Data Set from Central Asia

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:13:01 -0700

This data set expands the NOAA Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN) of quality controlled meteorological records. Records are from 298 stations in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Data were subjected to rigorous quality control and homogeneity assessment procedures, consistent with those used for the GHCN.

January 2008: New Teacher Resource

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:50:01 -0700

The Sea Ice Index is the basis of a new module in Windows to the Universe.

December 2007: Analog Archives awarded NEH grant

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:42:01 -0700

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded the Analog Archives collection a Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions.

December 2007: Over 34,000 glaciers in China have been added to the World Glacier Inventory

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:30:01 -0700

The World Glacier Inventory has been updated with over 34,000 new glaciers. For more information, please see the "Quality Assessment and History of Updates" section of the data set documentation for further details about this update. To access the new data from this update, proceed to this Web page and select "CAREERI, Lanzhou, China. Che/Wu" from the Data Contributor pull-down menu.

November 2007: Sea Ice Charts of the Russian Arctic in Gridded Format, 1933-2006 (new data set published)

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:30:01 -0700

The Sea Ice Charts of the Russian Arctic in Gridded Format, 1933-2006, were published. These data, from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, are an important new data source for those studying the role of sea ice in climate change.

October 2007: Sea Ice Index Graphics and Numbers

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:02:01 -0700

Sea Ice Index graphics and numbers figured prominently in coverage of this year's record sea ice extent minimum. The Index Web site had more than 135,000 hits from more than 9,000 distinct users in the month of September alone.

October 2007: The Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX)

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:05:01 -0700

AIDJEX was a pioneering experiment that in the mid 1970s provided answers to emerging questions about how sea ice moves and changes in response to the influence of ocean and atmosphere. See the new AIDJEX page for links to a photo gallery, related material, and to a new retrospective on the experiment by Norbert Untersteiner, AIDJEX Project Director, 1971-1977.

September 2007: Sea Ice Index Site Redesigned and GIS Files Available

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:05:01 -0700

The Sea Ice Index pages have been redesigned so that graphs and images are easier to find. Thumbnails now take users to the Web Image Spreadsheet Tool (WIST), where one can quickly compare images from different time periods. GIS compatible files (shapefiles) of monthly ice coverage are now available as well.

September 2007: Sea ice added to Science on a Sphere

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:05:01 -0700

Sea ice animations now available in the data set catalog of NOAA's Science On a Sphere. Animations of sea ice concentration show the annual cycle and give some idea of its variability, while a series of September monthly means from 1987 on highlights the change in the annual Arctic minimum sea ice extent through time.

September 2007: More Online Glacier Photos

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:05:01 -0700

Today's update to the online collection includes 50 photographs taken between 1890 and 1996. Represented in this batch are Colorado glacier photographs taken by Junius Henderson, Oscar A. Randolph, Rudolph Johnson, and Russell Allen. The glaciers are Andrews, Arapaho, Fair, Isabel, Mills, Saint Vrain and Taylor. Other photos include a series of Franz Josef Glacier (1951 - 1964) and Harry Fielding Reid images of John Muir's cabin taken in 1890.

September 2007: Browse Sea Ice Climatologies More Easily

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:05:01 -0700

National Ice Center Arctic Sea Ice Charts and Climatologies in Gridded Format (http://nsidc.org/data/g02172.html) can now be easily browsed. Using a using a Web Image Spreadsheet Tool (WIST), one can quickly compare (visually) different time periods and products. Click on Browse Images at the top of the product site to see how it works. Use the drop down menus to change the number of rows and columns, and the chart products and time period being displayed.

September 2007: Updates to the Online Glacier Photograph Database

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:05:01 -0700

More than 1,200 photographs of Greenland glaciers have been digitized from slides and are available online for viewing and downloading. The photographs of western Greenland glaciers were taken between 1969 and 1980, from ground observation stations and from U.S. Coast Guard helicopters at an altitude between 100 and 1,000 feet. For further details about this data set please see the data documentation. To access the new data from this update, proceed to this Web page and select "Country" from the available search options. On the next screen choose "Greenland (DK)" from the Country pull-down menu.

August 2007: Updates to the World Glacier Inventory

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:05:01 -0700

The World Glacier Inventory has recently been updated. Over 1,600 glaciers from the former Soviet Union were added and errors with 368 glacier IDs were identified and corrected. For more information, please see the Quality Assessment and History of Updates section of our documentation for further details about these updates. To access the new data from this update, proceed to this Web page and select "Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Science. Chernova" from the Data Contributor pull-down menu.

June 2007: More Cryospheric Data and Google Earth

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:05:01 -0700

One of our latest KML files is included in the Google Earth Outreach Environment and Science Showcase. It includes a Sea Ice Index animation, glacier photograph pairs, and an Antarctic ice shelf break-up animation.

June 2007: Special Libraries Association (SLA) presentations

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:32 -0700

The Special Libraries Association conference in Denver had a session on "Resources for the International Polar Year" at which Ruth Duerr spoke on Discovery and Access of Historic Literature from the IPYs (DAHLI). Duerr and NSIDC archivist and librarian Allaina Howard lead the project, which is partially supported by the NOAA Climate Database Modernization Program. Howard presented a paper on Tracking Climate Change in the 21st Century: Supporting Research with Historic Photographs and Google Earth. Former Vice President Al Gore opened the conference, highlighting importance of special libraries.

June 2007: NOAA@NSIDC GeoRSS Feed Launched

Thu, 24 May 2007 15:48:32 -0700

The NOAA at NSIDC project manager Lisa Ballagh presented a paper on the new NOAA@NSIDC GeoRSS feed at The Fifth International Symposium on Digital Earth.

June 2007: Nordic Seas ice edge data set released, 1750 through 2002

Thu, 24 May 2007 09:35:32 -0700

The data set title is March through August Ice Edge Positions in the Nordic Seas, 1750-2002. The data are distributed via FTP in ASCII, JPEG and shapefile format.

April 2007: Historic film released

Thu, 24 May 2007 07:02:32 -0700

Featuring recently-discovered historical footage of CU student alpine hikes in the Front Range mountains, this silent color film provides a unique glimpse into the mountaineering lifestyle and familiar landscapes of the past. Watch students in the Mountain Recreation Department from 1938 to 1942 hike, climb, and camp in the Indian Peaks and nearby Rocky Mountain National Park. To order the ten dollar DVD, please contact NSIDC User Services (nsidc@nsidc.org).

March 2007: Animation of Sea Ice Index on Google Earth released

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 07:02:32 -0700

The sea ice animation shows images from the Sea Ice Index in Google Earth.

Nov. 2006: Operational Ice Chart Data for Research Released

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 09:35:32 -0700

The National Ice Center Sea Ice Charts and Climatologies in Gridded Format cover 1972-2004 with weekly or biweekly charts and climatologies in 25 km EASE-Grid. Documentation on NIC charting procedures is included.