Polar Meteorology Web Resources
- Get the current polar weather, sea ice and snow conditions.
- Explore topics in polar meteorology and climatology.
- Find and download free polar atmospheric data for research.
- Locate organizations, institutions and people involved in polar meteorology and climatology research.
This site is constantly being added to. All links were last checked on April
20, 2006. (Curses
to all webmasters who change URLs! Don't they realize all the problems
changing links causes?)
Current Weather Conditions and Forecasts
These are locations where you can find "real-time" satellite products, individual station conditions and various analyzed fields.Arctic
- Alaska
Weather Alaska Climate Research Center
Interactive map with links to Alaska weather information. Great user-friendly graphical links. - Arctic and Russian
Weather Charts Department of Meteorological Information, Center of
the Ice Hydrological and Meteorological Information of the AARI, Arctic
and Antarctic Research Institute,
Current and forecast maps of surface and 500 hPa pressure fields. -
Arctic Weather Charts Institute for Geophysics And Meteorology, University
of Cologne
Nice colormaps of surface winds, temperatures, pressure, surface observations, snow depth etc. for the Arctic. - Arctic Station Data The
Weather Underground, Inc.
Current meteorological conditions, forecasts and past conditions for land stations all over the world, including Arctic areas. - Arctic Weather Information Arctic System Science
- Canadian Weather Environment Canada, Meteorological Service of Canada Current Conditions and Forecasts including
- Greenland
Weather Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
(CIRES), University of Colorado at Boulder
Contains several links to Greenland weather information, maintained by Konrad Steffen's research group.. - Svalbard Images Current and past weather conditions the Svalbard region. Site also contains pictures and maps of the region.
- Vessel
Icing Predictions Marine Modeling and Analysis Branch, National Centers
for Environmental Prediction
Current and predicted vessel icing condition for northern seas (during November - May icing season)
Has several links to Arctic weather sources..
Antarctic
- Antarctic Meteorology
Online British Antarctic Survey
A great source of Antarctic weather information, thanks to William Connolley. - Current Weather Get current Antarctica conditions by picking from a list.
- Clickable Map Clickable maps of current Antarctica WX obs
- Antarctic ship reports Get the most recent reports.
- Antarctic buoy reports Get the latest reports. Updated often
- Antarctic Meteorology
Antarctic Meteorology Research Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Contains a variety of real-time in situ land, ship, buoy and satellite-derived projects; all are produced in-house. A star attraction is the beautiful Antarctic composite satellite movie. -
Antarctic Surface Sations Institute for Geophysics And Meteorology,
University of Cologne
Color rendition of current Antarctic station data. - Antarctic
Station Data The Weather Underground, Inc.
Current meteorological conditions, forecasts and past conditions for several stations. - South Pole
Come visit the unofficial South Pole website.
- Clouds and Radiation
Polar Remote Sensing Group, University of Wisconsin
User-friendly site providing a variety of real time cloud and radiation products for both polar regions. - Global Forecasts European Centre
for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Generally considered to be the best 3-6 day forecasts available. - Passive Microwave Global
Maps Global Climate and Hydrology Center, NASA
Global maps of various surface properties and upper level air temperatures. Includes polar regions but in Mercator projection. - US Navy Weather Forecasts Fleet
Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center.
This site provides atmospheric and oceanographic support for the US Department of Defense. Contains many useful operational polar products including visible and IR satellite composites, winds, ice cover, ice age and forecasts. Unfortunately, accessing much of the polar information requires a US DoD password. - Polar
MM5 - Polar Research Model Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio
State
The Fifth-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5) has been modified for use in polar regions.
Current Sea Ice Conditions
Arctic- New! Sea Ice Outline Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) Check out this site to get a monthly report that summarizes leading scientists opinions on the state of Arctic sea ice and predictions for the summer minimum.
- Sea Ice Map Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute Current and archive maps of sea ice types and thicknesses for the Eurasian Sector.
- Sea Ice Products Canadian Ice Service A variety of products are available here.
-
Antarctic Sea Ice Movies University of Melbourne, School of Earth
Sciences
Nice movies of Antarctic ice cover, including today's sea ice distribtion. Based on NCEP OMP products (see above). Also contains list of sea ice links. Brought to you by Andrew Watkins, Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne. Link Broken on last check... - Weddell Polynya
Watch Marine Modeling and Analysis Branch, National Centers for Environmental
Prediction
Images and text by Robert Grumbine.
- Sea Ice Products National
Snow and Ice Data Center Contains several in-house products as well
as links to outside sources. I won't list all the many products here, except
the following that is especially useful for comparing current ice extent
to averages.
- Sea Ice Index Passive Microwave color charts and yearly trends of total ice cover for the Arctic and Antarctic. Note low Arctic ice extents in the last five years.
- New!Virtual Globe Google Earth™ Files with snow and ice areas shown.
- Sea Ice Products Marine
Modeling and Analysis Branch, National Centers for Environmental Prediction
NCEP MMAB Sea Ice Home Page. Several Sea Ice products and links available including:- Sea Ice Climatology and History Nice archive with animations. Check out the extremely low Arctic sea ice cover in August and September, 2002 - 2005.
- Sea Ice Ftp Download sea ice data at this ftp site - Click on readme for explanation.
- Sea Ice Products National
Ice Center
A wide variety of sea ice, lake ice and iceberg products, information and links covering both poles, the Great Lakes and other regions. - Sea Ice Data Bank
and Other Ice Products World Meteorological Association project:
"Global Digital Sea Ice Data Bank"
Pages contain extensive examples of sea ice. This is historical digitized material submitted by the world sea ice services. Also, the site contains the WMO general inventory on sea ice services (WMO pub. No 574), information on WMO/IOC JCOMM Expert Team on Sea Ice (former CMM SG on Sea Ice) and sea ice terms, formats and glossaries. - Sea Ice Products Danish Center
for Remote Sensing, Technical University of Denmark
This site contains a Java interface for viewing a variety of sea ice and related products. There are lots of current and archived products and several options for displaying them. You'll need a recent Java version. You'll also probably need to read the users guide to figure out how to make it work. - The Cryosphere Today
University of Illinois
Many original ice products including time series and "space view" images and movies of ice extent. Previous year time series plots of ice area for several Arctic regions.
Climate and Previous Weather Data and Information
Arctic- Central
Arctic Surface Data International Arctic Buoy Programme (IABP)
Primary source of Arctic Ocean surface pressure and temperature fields. Contains ftp data sites with air temperature, pressure and ice motion back to 1979. Rigor et al.'s paper has a temperature climatology map for the Arctic Ocean. -
Alaska Climatology Alaska Climate Research Center (ACRC)
Data from many Alaska stations. - Alaska
Climate Data Climate Diagnostics Center
Another clickable map of climate data. It does not have as many stations, as above, but does provide detailed plots of Alaska normal temps by day of year - New!Arctic
Climate Animations INSTAAR, University of Colorado
Interesting animations (some in "flyby 3D") showing the yearly cycle of temperature and precipitation in Alaska. - Canadian
Climate Data Environment Canada
Canada's primary climate site includes:- Yukon Monthly statistics
- Northwest Territories Monthly statistics
- Nunavut Monthly statistics
- Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net) Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Site contains data from automated stations.
- Air-Ice-Ocean
The ARCSS Data Coordination Center
Arctic System Science Program center for Arctic data. - Environmental
Data The Arctic Environmental Metadata Centre, Scott Polar Research
Institute, University of Cambridge, UK
Similar to above. Use search engine to find data. - Experiment
Data Joint Office for Science Support (JOSS)
Links to data from Arctic projects - Numerical
Models Monash University, Australia
Includes links to info on various polar climate models. - Precipitation Deutscher Wetterdienst The Arctic Precipitation Data Archive (ACSYS-APDA). Site has changed and the data is now available through individual participants.
- Antarctic Surface and
Upper Air Climate Data British Antarctic Survey
Links in tabular form. - Climate Data Antarctic
Meteorology Research Center University of Wisconsin - Madison
This site a contains archives of data from many Antarctic sites including:- Automatic Weather Station
Data from the Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) operated by the U.S.
- Automatic Weather Station
Data from the Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) operated by the U.S.
- Climate
Data Netherlands Earth Observation Network
Another source of Antarctic climate data. - South Pole South
Pole Observatory
Data from the South Pole. - Basic Statistics
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)
Basic geographic statistics on Antarctica. - Antarctic Climate British Antarctic Survey text description of Antarctic weather.
- Buoy Data Antarctic CRC International Programme for Antarctic Buoys (IPAP)
- World Climate Data
National Climatic Data Center (NOAA NCDC)
The big daddy of climate data sites. If climate data exists, it is probably here. You must pay for much of the data. Included here:- Climate Data Past weather by particular day, week or month.
- Climate Tables Click on "Climates of the World" for regional narratives and climatic tables by city on big pdf file.
- Monthly
World Climate Data The Global Historic Data Network (GHCN) There
are many products available at this site, including areal plots. Maintained
by NCDC. Polar projections do not appear to be an option.
- World Climate Data Climate
Diagnostics Center (CDC)
NOAA-CIRES site. Access to many data sets which include polar regions. Web site produces plots using user-defined plotting parameters. A useful feature for polar studies is the ability to plot on a polar sterographic projection.- Search Database Start here to find various data sets.
- Climatology
Links Alaska Climate Research Center
Long list of polar climate links. - World Climate Data by City Buttle and Tuttle Ltd.
-
Monthly Summaries Washington Post
Monthly summaries world wide including some polar stations. Link broken or very slow... - Buoy Data National Data Buoy
Center
US official archive center for buoy data, including polar regions. Address was changed. Why does NOAA keep changing their URLs? - Snow and Ice National Snow and Ice
Data Center
A wide variety of historical polar data is archived here including this recent product:- Arctic Melt Onset Maps and digital data showing onset times of Arctic ice melt.
- Remote Sensing University
of Wisconsin
Links to models, data, pictures etc. - Geophysical Data National
Geophysical Data Center
This site contains links to a variety of geophysical data in the U.S. and around the globe, including polar regions. - Paleoclimates NOAA Paleoclimatology
Program
Includes ice cores - Polar Satellite Data The Arctic
and Antarctic Research Center (AARC), Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Archived satellite images for polar regions. - Polar Satellite Data Defense
Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)
US Military polar orbiting satellites. - Environmental Information Global
Resource Information Database (GRID)
This site from Arendal, Norway, is part of the United Nations Environment Programme. There are various links to environmental data, particularly data from the Nordic and Baltic Sea. - CD ROM National
Information Services Corporation
Order the Arctic & Antarctic regions CD ROM. Claims to be "the world's largest collection of international polar databases".
Has enormous amount of climate info, including polar. You type in city name.
Climate Change
- Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA)
Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP)
This report summarizes climate changes that have occurred in the Arctic in recent years and how it has affected people and other living things in the Arctic region. This is a comprehensive report with many contributors. It is well-illustrated and suitable for general audiences. - Arctic Change Indicator Web
Site National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
This site was developed "to track physical and biological changes for presentation on the web". This site is meant to provide a continuous update the ACIA (linked above). This is a well-organized, user-friendly and comprehensive site that should be useful for anyone looking into Arctic climate change issues. - Arctic Climate Change University
of Illinois
This site has many products related to Arctic climate change, including spatial maps showing changes in various parameters. Also has links to model forecasts on time scales ranging from a few hours to many years.
- Information Center
for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO), Oslo, Norway
Many articles on global warming, ozone depletion and other climate issues. - Educational "Hot" Map Union
of Concerned Scientists
Clickable map showing "fingerprints" and "harbingers" of global warming. Some polar effects are described. Includes curriculum guide for educators. Perhaps one-sided (no contrary evidence is shown) but a very nice educational web site. - Humorous Education Univeristy
of Oregon, Physics Department
See the modeled effects of global warming while the Wicked Witch screams "I'm melting, I'm melting..." - Information Directory NASA's Global
Change Master Directory
Many global warming links. - Information
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Lot's of information on global warming.- Research EPA's Global Change Research Program
- Information Government
of Canada
Canada's global climate change site - Information U.S. Global Change
Research Program (USGCRP), Global Change Data and Information Service (GCDIS)
Gateway to Global Change Data - Data Global Change
Data Center (GCDC) Greenbelt, Maryland
Links to data. - Search Climate Ark
Has search engine for climate change info. - Links EcoEarth.Info
- Environmental Portal Eco-Portal
- The EnvironmentalSustainability.Info Source
An information gateway empowering the movement for environmental sustainability.- Links to web sites related to climate in the Arctic and Antarctic.
- Earth Talk An online discussion forum on environmental issues.
- Plots Global
Resource Information Database (GRID)
Some nice plots of climate change parameters... - Polar
Warming USA Today
Articles on polar regions and global warming. Didn't see much there last time I checked... - Kids Atmospheric
Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program
Global Warming for kids and kids at heart. - Education and Photography
One World Journeys
An educational site, with a highly professional look covering many aspects of climate change including some Polar-related items. - Climate Change Forum
Climate Commons
A discussion forum about climate change, sustainability and/or the Arctic. This contains posts from people with a variety of backgrounds, both scientific and non-scientific.Education
(See previous section for educational material on global warming)- Northern Latitude Meteorology University Corporation for Atmospheric Research This is a high quality site produced as part of the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET). It is primarily geared toward forecasters in Canada, Alaska and the northern tier of the continental US. This site contains web courses, cases studies, a discussion forum and more.
- Arctic Theme Page National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration This site contains links to other web sites with data, journal articles, specially-prepared essays and FAQs about the Arctic. Includes current conditions, climate, climate change, sea ice and other geophysical topics as well as some biology, chemistry and social studies. A excellent resource for scientifically-literate people looking for detailed information about various Arctic issues.
- Arctic Climatology an d Meteorology PRIMER National Snow and Ice Data Center This educational web site by NSIDC is the only educational site (besides this one) devoted to the climate and meteorology of the Arctic. The site emphasizes Russian contributions to our knowledge of the Arctic with several pictures from the Russian drifting stations.
- Antarctica Rice University
Educational site called "Glacier" with a variety of info about Antarctica, including meteorology. (Click "Weather" at upper-right.)Maps
- Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP) NSF, University of Texas at Austin, INSTAAR QGIS Lab and VECO Polar Resources This is an interactive, online mapping application for field-based scientific research in the Arctic.
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) ARCUS Website to encourage and catalyze further discussion and planning on arctic GIS and Geospatial Information Infrastructure (GII) efforts.
- Arctic Environmental Atlas GRID - United Nations Environment Programme Nice interactive map feature showing a variety of enivironmental features.
- Atmosphere, Ice and Ocean Atlases NSIDC The Environmental Working Group Arctic Atlases on CD-ROM
- Map Links USGS site with many links to Antarctic maps. Also some nice Arctic maps are available.
- Atlas of Antarctic Research This is a really neat interactive map of Antarctica from the USGS.
- Arctic Pollution and Climate Maps Arctic Monitering and Assessment Program (AMAP) Part of the United Nations Environment Programme Global Resource Information Database. Contains over 400 maps of Arctic parameters related to arctic haze, ozone hole, climate change and other topics.
- New Interactive Maps of Greenland Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
- Polar Maps University of Texas at Austin, The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
- Sea Ice AARI current and archive maps of sea ice types and thicknesses for the Eurasian Sector.
- Sea Ice NCEP MMAB maps of ice coverage in both polar regions
- Sea Ice USGS monthly ice concentration
- General Map Index (not Polar specific) University of Iowa, Center for Global and Environmental Research
- General Map Links (not Polar specific) Oden's Bookmarks
Major Polar Research Projects
These are projects related to polar meteorology or climatology. It is not a complete list and needs updating. Please contact Peter Guest (bottom) to add new and overlooked projects.- The Antarctic First Regional Observing Study of the Troposphere Project (FROST)
- The Sea Ice Model Intercomparison Project - Dynamics(SIMIP)
- Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM)
- Arctic Transitions in the Land-Atmosphere System (ATLAS)
- Global Change Vulnerabilities in the Barents Region: Linking Arctic Natural Resources, Climate Change and Economies (BALANCE)
- Finnish Antarctic Research Programme (FINNARP)
- FIRE Arctic Cloud Experiment (FIRE-ACE)
- Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP)
- Katabatic wind and boundary layer front experiment around Greenland (KABEG 97)
- Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA)
- Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH)
- Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA)
Insitutions
This is list of institutions that perform polar meteorology forecasting, research and/or education. Some institutions may be listed under "organizations", below. Please contact Peter Guest (bottom) if there is an institution that you would like to add.- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Bremerhaven, Germany
- Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute St. Petersburg, Russia
- British Antarctic Survey Cambridge, United Kingdom.
- Meteorology Division
- Ice and Climate Division This division no longer exists, but this is the old web site.
- Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)Palisades, New York
- Danish Meteorological Institute Copenhagen, Denmark
- Danish Polar Center Copenhagen, Denmark
- Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL) Boulder, Colorado
- Finnish Institute of Marine Research Helsinki, Finland
- Global Hydrology and Climate Center - NASA Huntsville, Alabama
- Icelandic Meteorological Office Reykjavík, Iceland
- Meteorological Service of Canada
- Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC) Bergen, Norway
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) United States
- National Ice Center (NIC) Washington DC
- National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) Tokyo, Japan
- This institution publishes the journal, Polar Meteorology and Glaciology.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) United States
- National Weather Service (NWS) United States
- Naval Postgraduate School, Department of Meteorology Monterey, California
- Norwegian Meteorological Institute (DNMI) Oslo, Bergen and Tromsø, Norway
- Norwegian Polar Institute Tromsø, Norway.
- Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (NOAA/PMEL)Seattle, Washington
- Raytheon Polar Services Company Provides logistic services for NSF-funded Antarctic Research.
- Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute Sweden
- University of Alaska Fairbanks
- University of Alberta, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Marine Icing Group Alberta, Canada.
- The University of the Arctic Rovaniemi, Finland
- University of Calgary, Arctic Institute of North America Calgary, Canada.
- University of California San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Arctic and Antarctic Research Center La Jolla, California
- University of Cambridge, Scott Polar Research Institute Cambridge, United Kingdom
- University of Canterbury Christchurch, New Zealand
- University College London, Department of Space & Climate Physics, Climate Physics Group, Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) London, United Kingdom
- University of Cologne, Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, Meteorological Section Cologne, Germany
- University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado
- University of Copenhaven, Niels Bohr Institute for Astronomy, Physics and Geophysics Copenhaven, Denmark
- University of Hokkaido, Division of Ocean and Atmospheric Science Sapporo, Japan
- University of Illinois, Arctic Climate Research Urbana, Illinois
- University of Kiel, Institut für Meereskunde (Marine Research Institute) Kiel, Germany
- University of Lapland, Arctic Centre Rovaniemi, Finland
- University of New Hampshire, Climate Change Research Center, Glacier Research Group (GRG) Durham, New Hampshire.
- University of Ohio, Byrd Polar Research Center Columbus, Ohio
- University of Tasmania, Cooperative Research Centre for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (Antarctic CRC) Hobart, Australia
- University of Wisconsin Madison, Automated Weather Stations Project and Antarctic Meteorology Research Center, Madison, Wisconsin
- University of Washington Seattle, Washington
- U.S. Army Cold Regions
Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) Hanover, New Hampshire
- CRREL
Technical Reports Large searchable collection of Polar-related
research.
- Handbook of Physical Constants and Functions for Use in Atmosphereic Boundary Layer Studies A "handy" reference by Edgar L. Andrea
- CRREL
Technical Reports Large searchable collection of Polar-related
research.
- Veco Polar Resources Provides logistical services for NSF-funded Arctic research.
