National Snow and Ice Data Center |
|
| Service health Now: |
|---|
National Snow and Ice Data Center (unverified)
Contact information:
NSIDC User Services
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB, University of Colorado, 80309-0449 Boulder, USA
Email:
Phone: +1 303.492.6199
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Atlas of the Cryosphere is a map server that provides data and information pertinent to the frozen regions of Earth, including monthly climatologies of sea ice extent and concentration, snow cover extent, and snow water equivalent, in addition to glacier outlines, permafrost extent and classification, ice sheet elevation and accumulation, and more. In order to support polar projections, the Atlas is divided into two separate map servers: one for the Northern Hemisphere and one for the Southern Hemisphere. In addition to providing map images and source data through Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) protocols (WMS, WFS, and WCS), a dynamic web interface for exploring these data is also available at http://nsidc.org/data/atlas. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please contact NSIDC User Services at +1.303.492.6199 or nsidc@nsidc.org. The development of this map server application was supported by NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Program under contract NAS5-03099 and was developed using MapServer, an Open Source development environment for building spatially-enabled internet applications. To cite the Atlas of the Cryosphere: Maurer, J. 2007. Atlas of the Cryosphere. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital media. Available at http://nsidc.org/data/atlas/.
Greenland surface elevation contours (greenland_elevation_contours)
Bamber, J.L., R.L. Layberry, S.P. Gogenini. 2001. A new ice thickness and bed data set for the Greenland ice sheet 1: Measurement, data reduction, and errors. Journal of Geophysical Research. 106(D24): 33773-33780. Data provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center DAAC, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA. Available at http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0092.html. 25 October 2006. Bamber, J.L., R.L. Layberry, S.P. Gogenini. 2001. A new ice thickness and bed data set for the Greenland ice sheet 2: Relationship between dynamics and basal topography. Journal of Geophysical Research. 106(D24): 33781-33788. Data provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center DAAC, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA. Available at http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0092.html. 25 October 2006. Background: Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data are a combination of European Remote-Sensing (ERS-1) and Geosat satellite radar altimetry data, Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM) data, and photogrammetric digital height data.
glaciers (glaciers)
National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). 1992. VMAP_1V10 - Vector Map Level 0 (Digital Chart of the World). Bethesda, MD, USA: National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). Available at http://www.maproom.psu.edu/dcw/ and http://webgis.wr.usgs.gov/globalgis/. 01 September 2000. Background: The primary source for this database is the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency's (DMA) Operational Navigation Chart (ONC) 1:1,000,000 scale paper map series produced by the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. These charts were designed to meet the needs of pilots and air crews in medium-and low-altitude en route navigation and to support military operational planning, intelligence briefings, and other needs. Level 0 (low resolution) coverage is global, and is entirely in the public domain. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) is a federal agency of the United States Government and is now known as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
Canadian provinces and territories (canadian_boundaries)
National Weather Service. 1999. Canadian provinces. Silver Spring, MD, USA: National Weather Service. Available at http://www.weather.gov/geodata/catalog/national/html/province.htm. 07 September 2006. Background: This data set is a polygon shapefile containing the provinces and territories of Canada.
North Poles (north_poles_wfs)
Labels the location of various types of North Poles: geographic, geomagnetic, magnetic, pole of cold, and pole of inaccessibility. Citations: World Data Center for Geomagnetism, Kyoto. Date unknown. Magnetic North, Geomagnetic and Magnetic Poles. World Data Center for Geomagnetism, Kyoto. Available at http://swdcwww.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/poles/polesexp.html. Accessed 23 January 2007; Geological Survey of Canada. 31 December 2005. Geomagnetism - North Magnetic Pole. Geological Survey of Canada. Available at http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/geomag/nmp/northpole_e.php. Accessed 23 January 2007; Wikipedia contributors. 23 January 2007. Pole of Cold. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_Cold. Accessed 24 January 2007; Scambos, T. and T. Haran. 2005. Location of the Arctic Pole of Inaccessibility computed from MODIS remote sensing imagery and GPS. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center.
countries (country_borders)
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University; and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). 2005. Gridded Population of the World Version 3 (GPWv3): National Boundaries. Palisades, NY, USA: Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), Columbia University. Available at http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw. 19 January 2007. Background: National boundaries derived from the Gridded Population of the World (GPW) country-level land area grids at 2.5 arc-minute resolution. Permanent ice and all but large lakes have been merged with neighbouring polygons to make a layer more appropriate for cartographic visualization of the data. Does not include Antarctica.
permafrost ground-ice conditions (permafrost_classification)
Brown, J., O.J. Ferrians Jr., J.A. Heginbottom, and E.S. Melnikov. 1998. revised February 2001. Circum-Arctic map of permafrost and ground-ice conditions. Boulder, CO, USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Available at http://nsidc.org/data/ggd318.html. 07 September 2006. Background: Permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, is ground (soil, sediment, or rock) that remains at or below 0 deg C for at least two years (Permafrost Subcommittee, 1988). It occurs both on land and beneath offshore arctic continental shelves, and underlies about 22% of the Earth's land surface. The circumpolar permafrost and ground ice data contribute to a unified international data set that depicts the distribution and properties of permafrost and ground ice in the Northern Hemisphere (20 deg N to 90 deg N). The re-gridded data set shows discontinuous, sporadic, or isolated permafrost boundaries. Permafrost extent is estimated in percent area (90-100%, 50-90%, 10-50%, 20%, 10-20%, <10%, and 0%). The shapefiles were derived from the original 1:10,000,000 paper map (Brown et al. 1997). For more information on the creation of the original map, see Heginbottom et al. (1993).
North Pole, Magnetic (north_pole_magnetic)
Geological Survey of Canada. 31 December 2005. Geomagnetism - North Magnetic Pole. Geological Survey of Canada. http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/geomag/nmp/northpole_e.php. 23 January 2007. Background: Labels the location of the Magnetic North Pole, which in 2005 was measured at 82.7 deg N, 114.4 deg W by the Geological Survey of Canada. The Earth's magnetic poles are the two points on the earth's surface at which magnetic meridians converge; the horizontal component of the magnetic field of the earth becomes zero at this point; also called the dip pole. The magnetic poles migrate over time.
permafrost extent (permafrost_extent)
Brown, J., O.J. Ferrians Jr., J.A. Heginbottom, and E.S. Melnikov. 1998. revised February 2001. Circum-Arctic map of permafrost and ground-ice conditions. Boulder, CO, USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Available at http://nsidc.org/data/ggd318.html. 07 September 2006. Background: Permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, is ground (soil, sediment, or rock) that remains at or below 0 deg C for at least two years (Permafrost Subcommittee, 1988). It occurs both on land and beneath offshore arctic continental shelves, and underlies about 22% of the Earth's land surface. The circumpolar permafrost and ground ice data contribute to a unified international data set that depicts the distribution and properties of permafrost and ground ice in the Northern Hemisphere (20 deg N to 90 deg N). The re-gridded data set shows discontinuous, sporadic, or isolated permafrost boundaries. Permafrost extent is estimated in percent area (90-100%, 50-90%, 10-50%, <10%, and no permafrost). The shapefiles were derived from the original 1:10,000,000 paper map (Brown et al. 1997). For more information on the creation of the original map, see Heginbottom et al. (1993).
North Pole, Geomagnetic (north_pole_geomagnetic)
World Data Center for Geomagnetism, Kyoto. Date unknown. Magnetic North, Geomagnetic and Magnetic Poles. World Data Center for Geomagnetism, Kyoto. http://swdcwww.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/poles/polesexp.html. 23 January 2007. Background: Labels the location of the Geomagnetic North Pole, which in 2005 was measured at 79.7 deg N, 71.8 deg W by the World Data Center for Geomagnetism, Kyoto. The Earth's geomagnetic poles are the points of intersection of the Earth's surface with the axis of a simple magnetic dipole that best approximates the Earth's actual, more complex magnetic field. If the Earth's magnetic field were a perfect dipole, then the field lines would be vertical at the geomagnetic poles and they would therefore coincide with the magnetic poles: however, the dipole approximation is in fact far from perfect, so in reality the magnetic and geomagnetic poles lie some distance apart. The geomagnetic poles migrate over time.
coastlines (coastlines)
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University; and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). 2005. Gridded Population of the World Version 3 (GPWv3): Coastlines. Palisades, NY, USA: Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), Columbia University. Available at http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw. 19 January 2007. Background: Coastlines derived from the Gridded Population of the World (GPW) land area grid at 2.5 arc-minute resolution. Permanent ice and all but large lakes have been merged with neighbouring polygons to make a layer more appropriate for cartographic visualization of the data. Does not include Antarctica.
North Pole, Geographic (north_pole_geographic)
Labels the location of the North Pole (90 deg N, 0 deg), also referred to as the Geographic North Pole.
International Date Line (international_date_line)
National Geographic Society. 1992. National Geographic Atlas of the World, Revised Sixth Edition. Washington, D.C. USA: National Geographic Society. Compiled by J. Maurer. 2007. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital Media. Background: The International Date Line (IDL), also known as just the Date Line, is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth opposite the Prime Meridian which offsets the date as one travels east or west across it. Roughly along 180 deg longitude, with diversions to pass around some territories and island groups, it corresponds to the time zone boundary separating +12 and -12 hours GMT (UT1). Crossing the IDL travelling east results in a day or 24 hours being subtracted, and crossing west results in a day being added.
Greenland ice core locations (greenland_ice_cores)
Maurer, J. compiler. 2009. Deep ice core locations. Boulder, Colorado USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital media. Accessed 03 May 2009. Background: Labels the locations of several deep ice cores from the Greenland ice sheet, including: the Greenland Ice Sheet Project (GISP) Dye 3; the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2); the Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP); the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP); Camp Century; Crete; and Milcent ice core.
U.S. states and territories (united_states_borders)
National Weather Service. 1999. States of the United States. Silver Spring, MD, USA: National Weather Service. Available at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/national/html/us_state.htm. 07 September 2006. Background: This data set is a polygon shapefile containing the states and territories of the United States including the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii and Atlantic and Pacific territories. It was created from USGS 1:2,000,000 DLG county data to provide the National Weather Service (NWS) with a state background data set for those applications and displays that require state boundaries.
glacier outlines (glacier_outlines)
Armstrong, R., B. Raup, S.J.S. Khalsa, R. Barry, J. Kargel, C. Helm, and H. Kiefer. 2005. GLIMS glacier database. Boulder, CO, USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Available at http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0272.html. 24 August 2006. Background: Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) is an international project with the goal of surveying a majority of the world's estimated 160,000 glaciers. GLIMS uses data collected primarily by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument aboard the Terra satellite and the LANDSAT Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), along with historical observations. The GLIMS project is currently creating a unique glacier inventory, storing information about the extent and rates of change of all the world's glacial resources. GLIMS consists of many institutions called Regional Centers, who produce glacier analyses for their particular region. The GLIMS Glacier Database provides students, educators, scientists, and the public with reliable glacier data from these analyses. New glacier data are continually being added to the database.
North Pole of Cold (north_pole_of_cold)
Wikipedia contributors. 23 January 2007. Pole of Cold. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pole_of_Cold
North Pole of Inaccessibility (north_pole_inaccessibility)
Scambos, T. and T. Haran. 2005. Location of the Arctic Pole of Inaccessibility computed from MODIS remote sensing imagery and GPS. Boulder, CO, USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Unpublished. Background: Labels the location of the North Pole of Inaccessibility (85.780 deg N, 176.145 deg E), which is the point in the Arctic Ocean farthest from land. Distances were triangulated on a polar stereographic projection using remote sensing imagery from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that were geolocated by the associated MOD03 MODIS geolocation product. Once this process converged on the location that was farthest from any coast or island and nearly equidistant from three disparate coastal points, a Global Positioning System (GPS) instrument was then used to convert this point from its projected geometry to an ellipsoidal geometry. This Pole of Inaccessibility is more accurate than the one traditionally referred to in maps used during a flight by Sir Hubert Wilkins in 1926 (85.05 deg N, 174.85 deg E) where he tried to guess the center of the summer sea ice pack, a highly variable location.
treeline (treeline)
CAVM Team. 2003. Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map. Scale 1:7,500,000. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Map No. 1. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska, USA. Treeline available at http://www.geobotany.uaf.edu/cavm/data/treeline_la.zip. 24 August 2006. Background: The Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map (CAVM) shows the types of vegetation that occur across the Arctic, between the ice-covered Arctic Ocean to the north and the northern limit of forests to the south. The CAVM team grouped over 400 described plant communities into 15 different physiognomic units based on plant growth forms. An international team of arctic vegetation scientists representing the six countries of the Arctic--Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, and the United States--prepared the map.
Greenland Climate Network (greenland_climate_network)
Steffen, K. 03 June 2002. Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net). Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Automatic Weather Station (AWS) positions available at http://cires.colorado.edu/science/groups/steffen/gcnet/GC-Net_info.txt. 23 January 2007. Background: This layer labels the location of automatic weather stations (AWS) that are part of the Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net). A total of ~20 GC-Net AWS have been installed across Greenland since 1995 (Steffen and Box, 2001) as part of NASA's Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA). Installed and maintained by Dr. Konrad Steffen and others, the GC-Net provides critical climate information over vast, unpopulated regions of the Greenland ice sheet. Each AWS is equipped with a number of instruments to sample the following: air temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity, pressure, accumulation rate at high temporal resolution to identify and resolve individual storms, surface radiation balance in visible and infrared wavelengths, sensible and latent heat flux fluxes, and snowpack conductive heat fluxes. To download GC-Net data, visit 'http://cires.colorado.edu/science/groups/steffen/gcnet/'.
There are currently no notifications for the service, click the feed icon to subscribe.