Every year, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) scientists and colleagues present important work during the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting. This year, the conference lasts from December 1 to 17, 2020, and all talks, posters, and events are virtual. Below is the schedule of NSIDC participation at the conference, listed by date, in Mountain Time.
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NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data, creates tools for data access, supports data users, performs scientific research, and educates the public about the cryosphere.
Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis
Scientific analysis of Arctic sea ice conditions plus daily imagesELOKA
Working together to understand the changing Arctic systemSnow Today
Scientific analysis of snow conditions in the Western United States plus daily imagesThe NASA DAAC at NSIDC
NASA Earth science data on snow, ice, cryosphere, and climateVisit the Cryosphere
Facts, photos and educational resources about Earth's frozen regionsGreenland Today
Daily surface melt images from NASA data, and scientific analysisNews
Ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet has accelerated significantly over the past two decades, transforming the shape of the ice sheet edge and therefore coastal Greenland, according to scientific research led by Twila Moon, deputy lead scientist of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. These changes to the ice sheet could have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems and communities, as the flow of water under the ice sheet as well as nutrient and sediment flow are altered. Results of the research were published on October 27 in the American Geophysical Union’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface.
Arctic sea ice has likely reached its minimum extent for the year, at 3.74 million square kilometers (1.44 million square miles) on September 15, 2020, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. The 2020 minimum is the second lowest in the nearly 42-year satellite record.
The concentration of mercury in fish in Alaska’s Yukon River may exceed EPA mercury criterion by 2050 if greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming are not constrained, according to new scientific research led by the National Snow and Ice Data Center’s (NSIDC) Kevin Schaefer. This first of its kind research estimates potential releases of mercury from thawing permafrost in high and low emissions scenarios. The researchers predict that by 2200, the mercury emitted into the atmosphere annually by thawing permafrost could compare with current global anthropogenic emissions under a high emissions scenario. Their results were published on September 16 in Nature Communications.
How is coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affecting Indigenous Peoples’ access to food? National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) research scientist Noor Johnson, along with colleagues from the University of Arizona and the Indigenous Food Knowledges Network (IFKN), aims to find out. Johnson is a co-principal investigator on a new National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project, entitled “Impact of COVID-19 on Food Access in Indigenous Communities in the Arctic and US Southwest: A Comparative Landscape Analysis,” that focuses on how COVID-19 has affected food security and sovereignty in these two regions.
Events
The Latest on Snow and Ice
Entering December, which is the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, sea ice extent... read more
The 2020 melt season in Greenland is over, finishing thirteenth for cumulative melt-day extent... read more
A vast area of the Arctic Ocean remains ice free as November begins, far later in the season... read more
Daily melt extent mapping is suspended for the winter. Calibration of yearly melt ... read more
Following the sea ice extent minimum on September 15, 2020, expansion of the ice edge has been... read more