Cryosphere

Cryospheric variables include sea ice concentration, sea ice thickness, snow cover, glacier extent, and more. Overview pages summarize and compare selected datasets of a given variable.

To find a specific dataset or variable, jump to the search box below or click your desired variable from among the blue sub-category buttons.

To view only the datasets with commentaries from experts, select the "Datasets with guidance" button when using the search box.

Climate datasets

Has expert guidance
MEaSUREs: Northern Hemisphere Terrestrial Snow Cover Extent Weekly 100km EASE-Grid 2.0 MEaSUREs: Northern Hemisphere Terrestrial Snow Cover Extent Weekly 100km EASE-Grid 2.0

  • Years of record

  • to

"This data set offers users weekly 100 km Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent represented by three different variables. Two of the variables are derived from individual…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Snow Cover

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
MEaSUREs Northern Hemisphere Terrestrial Snow Cover Extent Daily 25km EASE-Grid 2.0 MEaSUREs Northern Hemisphere Terrestrial Snow Cover Extent Daily 25km EASE-Grid 2.0

  • Years of record

  • to

"This data set offers users 25 km Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent represented by four different variables. Three of the snow cover variables are derived from the…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Snow Cover

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
CERA-20C: ECMWF's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Reanalysis of the 20th Century CERA-20C: ECMWF's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Reanalysis of the 20th Century

  • Years of record

  • to

The CERA-20C is a global, coupled reanalysis spanning 1901-2010 with a focus on low-frequency climate variability.  Similar to ERA-20C, the surface observations…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Multiple variables Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily, Daily, Monthly

    • Collections

    • N/A
From Petty et al. (2020); provided by Rachel Tilling Sea Ice Thickness Data Sets: Overview & Comparison Table

  • Years of record

  • to

While satellite observations of sea ice extent and concentration are available from 1979, long-term high quality (daily and high spatial resolution) observations of sea ice…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Thickness
NSIDC Sea Ice Index NSIDC Sea Ice Index

  • Years of record

  • to

The NSIDC Sea Ice Index is a suite of easy-to-use sea ice analyses to track changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. The product is produced and supported by the NOAA at…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration
Daily Arctic sea ice volume from PIOMAS for each year from January 1, 1979 to November 30, 2022 using shades of blue to red in sequential order for every line. The decadal averages are annotated on the right side. (contributed by Z. Labe) Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS)

  • Years of record

  • to

The Pan-Arctic Ice-Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) is a reanalysis data set that uses a coupled ice and ocean model to provide daily and monthly estimates of…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Thickness Ocean
Walsh and Chapman Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Walsh and Chapman Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice

  • Years of record

  • to

The Walsh and Chapman Sea Ice Data Set provides a long record of Arctic sea ice concentrations on a monthly basis for 1870-2011. Historical observations were gridded and…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean
Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR) Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR)

  • Years of record

  • to

The Arctic System Reanalysis is a multi-agency, university-led retrospective analysis (reanalysis) of the Greater Arctic. ASR is produced using high-resolution versions of…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Cryosphere Land Soil Moisture

    • Timestep

    • Sub-daily, Monthly

    • Collections

    • N/A

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Merged Hadley-NOAA/OI Sea Surface Temperature & Sea-Ice Concentration (Hurrell et al, 2008) Merged Hadley-NOAA/OI Sea Surface Temperature & Sea-Ice Concentration (Hurrell et al, 2008)

  • Years of record

  • to

The merged Hadley-OI sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice concentration (SIC) data sets were specifically developed as surface forcing data sets for AMIP style…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean SST - sea surface temperature

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Sea Ice Concentration: NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record Sea Ice Concentration: NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record

  • Years of record

  • to

The NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record (CDR) of sea ice concentration is available at 25 x 25 km spatial resolution in daily or monthly timesteps for 1987-2014. It provides a…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean
Snow Cover Extent (Northern Hemisphere) Climate Data Record, by Rutgers Snow Cover Extent (Northern Hemisphere) Climate Data Record, by Rutgers

  • Years of record

  • to

The Snow Cover Extent Climate Data Record extends from the late 1960s to present. Historical analyses based on visual inspection have been digitized and combined with modern…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Snow Cover Land
Permafrost: Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions Permafrost: Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions

  • Years of record

  • N/A

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…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Permafrost Land

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Climate Data Guide Randolph Glacier Inventory data base of global glacier outlines

  • Years of record

  • N/A

The Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI) is a global data base of glacier outlines. It is intended for estimates of ice volume and glacier mass at regional and global scales.…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Glaciers Land

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Global Permafrost Zonation Index Map Global Permafrost Zonation Index Map

  • Years of record

  • N/A

This data set contains a global (excluding Antarctica) 1 km map of permafrost zonation. It is an estimate of to what degree permafrost exists in a region nearly everywhere,…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Permafrost Land
GRACE: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment: Surface mass, total water storage, and derived variables GRACE: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment: Surface mass, total water storage, and derived variables

  • Years of record

  • to

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) refers to a pair of NASA satellites that has flown in low-Earth orbit since 2002. The satellites use a precise microwave…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Glaciers Ice Sheet Mass Land Groundwater surface water Water Storage Ocean Bottom pressure
Sea Ice Concentration data from AMSR-E, AMSR2 & SSMIS, U Bremen and U Hamburg ASI algorithm Sea Ice Concentration data from AMSR-E, AMSR2 & SSMIS, U Bremen and U Hamburg ASI algorithm

  • Years of record

  • to

The sea ice data derived from AMSR-E using the ARTIST sea ice (ASI) algorithm offer a factor of 4 finer spatial resolution than most sea ice data sets from passive microwave…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
(credit: Signe Aaboe and Thomas Lavergne) Sea Ice Concentration Climate Data Record from OSI SAF

  • Years of record

  • to

The Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Applications Facility (OSI SAF) of EUMETSAT provides sea ice concentration products for the Arctic and Antarctic based on satellite passive…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean
Sea Ice Concentration data from HadISST Sea Ice Concentration data from HadISST

  • Years of record

  • to

Spanning 1871-present at monthly timesteps, HadISST provides the longest gridded sea ice data available for both the Arctic and Antarctic. It is a 1° x 1° spatially infilled…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Sea Ice Concentration data from NASA Goddard and NSIDC based on NASA Team algorithm Sea Ice Concentration data from NASA Goddard and NSIDC based on NASA Team algorithm

  • Years of record

  • to

NASA Team sea ice refers to a well-known algorithm used to estimate sea ice concentration from passive microwave brightness temperatures. This page discusses the algorithm…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Sea Ice Concentration data from NASA Goddard and NSIDC based on Bootstrap algorithm Sea Ice Concentration data from NASA Goddard and NSIDC based on Bootstrap algorithm

  • Years of record

  • to

Bootstrap sea ice refers to a well-known algorithm used to estimate sea ice concentration from passive microwave brightness temperatures. It can be applied to data from many…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Sea Ice Concentration data from NOAA OI Sea Ice Concentration data from NOAA OI

  • Years of record

  • to

The NOAA Optimal Interpolation (OI) v2 sea ice data set contains gridded, weekly or monthly resolution sea ice concentration estimates for both the Northern and Southern…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Sea Ice Concentration data: Overview, Comparison table and graphs Sea Ice Concentration data: Overview, Comparison table and graphs

  • Years of record

  • N/A

Sea ice concentration is both an indicator and driver of high-latitude climate change with strong societal and ecological importance. It is a key boundary condition for…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Sea Ice Concentration data from NASA Goddard and NSIDC using AMSR-E and NASA TEAM2 (NT2) algorithm Sea Ice Concentration data from NASA Goddard and NSIDC using AMSR-E and NASA TEAM2 (NT2) algorithm

  • Years of record

  • to

The AMSR-E/NASA Team 2 (NT2) data set of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice concentration is available at daily timesteps and 12.5 km (optionally 25km) spatial resolution for 2002…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Sea ice concentration data from NASA Goddard based on SSMI and NASA Team (NT2) algorithm Sea ice concentration data from NASA Goddard based on SSMI and NASA Team (NT2) algorithm

  • Years of record

  • to

The NASA Team 2 (NT2) / SSMI data set of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice concentration is available at daily timesteps and 25km spatial resolution for 1992-2008. NT2, an…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
map of Tmin over eastern US (credit: Michele Thornton) Daymet: Daily Surface Weather and Climatological Summaries

  • Years of record

  • to

Daymet provides long-term, continuous, gridded estimates of daily weather and climatology variables by interpolating and extrapolating ground-based observations through…

Main variables and Earth System components

Atmosphere Maximum Air Temperature Minimum Air Temperature Precipitation Radiation Water Vapor Cryosphere Snow Water Equivalent
SST data: NOAA High-resolution (0.25x0.25) Blended Analysis of Daily SST and Ice, OISSTv2 SST data: NOAA High-resolution (0.25x0.25) Blended Analysis of Daily SST and Ice, OISSTv2

  • Years of record

  • to

"NOAA’s Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface temperature (OISST, also known as Reynolds’ SST) is a series of global analysis products, including the weekly OISST on a 1° grid…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Sea Ice Concentration Ocean SST - sea surface temperature
Snow Water Equivalent (AMSR-E) Snow Water Equivalent (AMSR-E)

  • Years of record

  • to

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) distributes daily, weekly, and monthly products which includes snow water equivalent. Note: "On 04…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Snow Water Equivalent

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A
Global Monthly EASE-Grid Snow Water Equivalent Climatology: SSMR, SSMI Global Monthly EASE-Grid Snow Water Equivalent Climatology: SSMR, SSMI

  • Years of record

  • to

This data set comprises global, monthly satellite-derived snow water equivalent (SWE) climatologies from November 1978 through May 2007, and is updated with more recent data…

Main variables and Earth System components

Cryosphere Snow Water Equivalent

  • Experts contributing reviews

  • N/A