Arctic Climatology and Meteorology PRIMER for Newcomers to the North

NSIDC's Arctic Climatology and Meteorology PRIMER for Newcomers to the North is a collection of interesting and informative meteorology and climate facts with particular emphasis on arctic phenomena. You can learn general information about the Basics of arctic weather, the Factors that determine weather and climate, and some of the weather Patterns in the Arctic. Brief sections also explore the Arctic's role in the global climate system and concerns about climate change. The Primer is designed so that you can browse it in any order, but the Basics section is a good place to start.

Use the Glossary to find meteorological definitions. The entries appear in both Russian and English, thanks to the joint U.S.-Russian project that produced it. Our Gallery contains photographs illustrating life on the ice floes that served as drifting weather stations for Russian scientists and technicians. The historic Russian North Pole Drifting Station program provided six decades of data from manned stations in the central Arctic.

The material on this site is taken from the Arctic Climatology Project Arctic Meteorology and Climate Atlas on CD-ROM. The Atlas was produced by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. In addition to the Primer, the full Atlas contains information on arctic history, important new data for polar research, and several Russian language scientific papers translated into English.

If you wish to use a figure or image from the Primer, please use our guidelines to acknowledge it.

Please acknowledge use of this Primer by citing it as follows:

"Taken from the NSIDC Arctic Climatology and Meteorology Primer (http://nsidc.org/arcticmet/)"