NASA
View and Share Your Planet with Worldview
This Earth Day, learn how you can view and share your home planet with Worldview. Music credit: "Common Destiny" from Universal Production Music Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio Katy...
NASA
NASA's Operation IceBridge Completes 11 Years of Polar Surveys
For 11 years from 2009 to 2019, the planes of NASA’s Operation IceBridge flew above the Arctic, Antarctic and Alaska, gathering data on the height, depth, thickness, flow and change of sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. As the team and...
NASA
NASA | From the Cockpit: Arctic Sea Ice with Commentary
You've seen the great cockpit footage from Best of IceBridge Arctic '13, now go behind the scenes for 9 minutes of scientific commentary with Operation IceBridge Project Scientist Michael Studinger and NASA sea ice researcher Nathan...
NASA
NASA | IceBridge Kicks Off Campaign with “New” Aircraft
NASA’s Operation IceBridge is back in the field, but this time, there’s a twist. Instead of using the P-3 or DC-8 aircraft from previous campaigns, they’ve outfitted a C-130 cargo plane for the trip. Science flights begin this week as...
NASA
NASA | Arctic Sea Ice Sets New Record Winter Low
Arctic sea ice has reached its peak winter extent for the year, and it’s the lowest winter maximum on record.
NASA
NASA | Arctic Sea Ice Reaches 2014 Minimum Extent
Sea ice acts as an air conditioner for the planet, reflecting energy from the sun. On September 17, the Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent for 2014. At 1.94 million square miles (5.02 million square kilometers), it’s the sixth...
Restoration Planet
The Northwest passage
Vanessa and I travelled aboard the expedition cruise ship Ocean Endeavour while filming with Adventure Canada. From Greenland to Pond Inlet and beyond here is part of our amazing experience.
NASA
NASA | Sea Ice 2008
Arctic sea ice declined this summer to its second smallest extent in the satellite era, suggesting that the record set in 2007 may not have been an anomaly. If recent trends in the melt rate continue, we could see a virtually ice-free...
NASA
NASA | A Laser Scientist Answers 5 Questions About LVIS
With winter closing in, a new NASA airborne campaign launched October 31, 2013 in Greenland. For the first time, the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor, or LVIS, is flying about NASA's new C-130 aircraft to measure the island's ice...
NASA
Arctic Sea Ice Reaches 2021 Minimum Extent
Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent on Sept. 16, 2021, at 4.72 million square kilometers (1.82 million square miles). Music: “Celestial Vault” from Universal Production Music Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center...
NASA
Older Arctic Sea Ice Disappearing
Arctic sea ice has not only been shrinking in surface area in recent years, it’s becoming younger and thinner as well. In this animation, where the ice cover almost looks gelatinous as it pulses through the seasons, cryospheric scientist...
NASA
NASA Sees High Temperatures, Wildfires, Sea Ice Minimum Extent in Warming Arctic
On Sept. 15, 2020, Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum extent -- the second-lowest on record. This summer, temperatures soared in the Siberian Arctic, and intense fires burned through peatland. The Arctic region is warming three...
NASA
NASA | Operation IceBridge Flies the Ice Caps
Ice caps are simply small versions of ice sheets, measuring in at a maximum area of 50,000 square kilometers (about 19,000 square miles). It's their small and thin stature that makes ice caps more prone to melt in a warming Arctic....
NASA
NASA | IceBridge Flies High over Both Poles
For the first time NASA’s Operation IceBridge is flying simultaneous missions over both the Arctic and Antarctic, on smaller, faster aircraft. These campaigns and aircraft represent both a unique opportunity for measuring polar ice, and...
NASA
NASA | Five Teachers, 500 Meters Above Greenland
This year five teachers were invited on board NASA's P-3B aircraft to fly at 500 meters above the glaciers of Greenland with Operation IceBridge, a six-year mission to study Arctic and Antarctic ice. Two teachers from Greenland, two from...
NASA
NASA Studies an Unusual Arctic Warming Event
Winter temperatures are soaring in the Arctic for the fourth winter in a row. The heat, accompanied by moist air, is entering the Arctic not only through the sector of the North Atlantic Ocean that lies between Greenland and Europe, as...
NASA
NASA | Operation IceBridge Discovers Massive Crack in Ice Shelf
In October, 2011, NASA's Operation IceBridge discovered a major rift in the Pine Island Glacier in western Antarctica. This crack, which extends at least 18 miles and is 50 meters deep, could produce an iceberg more than 800 square...
NASA
NASA | OIB: NASA and ESA in an Arctic Alliance
For the second straight year, NASA's Operation IceBridge is collaborating with the European Space Agency's CryoVEx program, flying aircraft low over Arctic sea ice while ESA's CryoSat satellite orbits above. In this video, IceBridge...
NASA
NASA | OIB Flights South 2014: A Sea Ice Mystery
Where’s it coming from? With global average temperatures rising, it would be natural to assume that total quantities of sea ice would be falling. But it’s not. Scientists have begun to observe sea ice increases around Antarctica, and the...
NASA
NASA | Arctic Sea Ice 101
NASA climate scientist Tom Wagner provides a look at the state of Arctic sea ice in 2009 and discusses NASA's role in monitoring the cryosphere. Learn More: Or get tweeted by NASA:
NASA
NASA | A Tour of the Cryosphere 2009
It has been said that the frozen parts of our planet, also known as the cryosphere, may be the proverbial 'canary in the coal mine' when it comes to climate change. This video shows some of the most dramatic fluctuations to our...
NASA
NASA | Lakes On A Glacier
How deep is that icy blue water on Greenland's ice sheet? Dr. Allen Pope, of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, is using data from the NASA/USGS Landsat 8 satellite to find out. In this video, Dr. Pope shares what he sees when he...
NASA
NASA | A Short Tour of the Cryosphere
The cryosphere consists of those parts of the Earth's surface where water is found in solid form, including areas of snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, ice sheets, and icebergs. This animation portrays changes in the cryosphere through...
NASA
NASA | A Selective History of Arctic Sea Ice Observations, Part 2
The study of Arctic sea ice changed forever with the dawn of the Space Age and the first Earth-observing satellites. Part 2 of our animated timeline picks up where Part 1 left off — with the launch of the TIROS weather satellite.