Glaciers, Snow, and Sea Ice: Observations of Arctic Change in the NOAA Data Collection at the National Snow and Ice Data Center

Since 1982, NOAA has recognized the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) as an adjunct member of the National Data Center system. Today, a small team at NSIDC (http://nsidc.org/noaa/) takes advantage of our position within a well-established polar science and data management institution to archive data and develop products that serve NOAA mission goals. We work to preserve past records though documenting and making digital copies of analog records, often in partnership with the NOAA Climate Database Modernization Program. The Glacier Photograph Collection (http://nsidc.org/data/g00472.html) is one result. We seek ways to make today's snow and ice data records from satellites more informative for users who may not be snow and ice scientists. The Sea Ice Index (http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/) is an example. In the future, we plan to work more closely with NOAA and other operational agencies to archive and distribute their products to a wider audience. We also anticipate contributing to a coming Climate Service. Work will involve improving data accessibility and providing interpretive information. Providing data in GIS compatible format through Web services, and showing snow and ice on virtual globes, are two areas of growing emphasis (see http://nsidc.org/data/virtual_globes/).

Arctic change is immediately visible in some data products such as glacier photograph time sequences. Other data reveal information about change when plotted or presented in some other way. It is not possible for us to work with all data sets to find the best way to present the information they contain, but some data sets are especially suited to some form of on-line visualization.

As Arctic system science will increasingly rely on access to data in near real time and seamless access to existing data, we see a future role working with developing observing networks and systems such as Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks, the Arctic Observing Network, and the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System. Here we will look for opportunities to make data acquired through these systems more visible and accessible to our large existing user base, and to create interpretive data products from data shared through these systems. In this way we hope to demonstrate how newly acquired data from observing networks can be layered with existing glacier, snow, and sea ice data, and accessed by the general public as well as scientists.