Joint U.S.-Russian Arctic Sea Ice Atlas From Cold War Era

Observations from the Environmental Working Group Joint U.S.-Russian Arctic Sea Ice Atlas document Arctic sea ice conditions from 1950 to 1994. The atlas synthesizes data from satellites, ice stations, icebreakers, airborne surveys, and previously classified U.S. submarine missions from 1977-1993. It was developed through a collaborative U.S.-Russian partnership in the late 1990s and includes graphical ice charts, analysis methods, and climatological data.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in sea ice concentration, extent, and age across the Arctic region.
• Studying ice thickness and deformation patterns using data from submarine and airborne surveys.
• Comparing historical U.S. and Russian ice charting methodologies and graphical products.
• Validating modern sea ice models against a multi-decade observational baseline from 1950-1994.
• Researching the integration of classified military data (1977-1993) into public environmental science.

Strengths

• Integrates multi-source observations from 1950-1994, including a 45-year time range.
• Includes data from previously classified U.S. submarine missions conducted from 1977 to 1993.
• Represents a unique collaborative product from U.S. and Russian scientific partners.

Limitations

• Key chart components have been superseded by newer, updated gridded products, reducing its operational utility.
• Critical metadata conflicts exist: the last update date is listed as both 1994-12-31 and 2026-03 13 across sources.
• No column names, row counts, or precise data size information is provided by any source.

Provenance

Source

NOAA@NSIDC Environmental Working Group (EWG) Atlases data collection.

Collection Method

Observations collected from satellite data, ice stations, icebreakers, airborne ice surveys, and U.S. submarine missions.

Time Range

1950 to 1994, with submarine data from 1977-1993.

Freshness

2026-03-13 03:02:39.464315

Geography

Arctic region.