Russian Arctic Sea Ice Edge and Extent, 1933-2006

Sea ice edge locations and monthly/seasonal extent data derived from historical Russian ice charts. The dataset covers the Russian Arctic marginal seas over a 74-year period from 1933 to 2006. It was created by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) to support Northern Sea Route operations and is distributed by NASA.

Use Cases

• Analyzing long-term trends in sea ice edge position for climate change studies.
• Calculating monthly and seasonal mean ice extents for specific marginal seas.
• Supporting historical analysis of navigability for the Northern Sea Route.
• Validating satellite-derived sea ice data against long-term in-situ chart records.

Strengths

• Covers a long historical period of 74 years (1933-2006).
• Derived from operational ice charts created by the authoritative Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI).
• Provides both ice edge location data and calculated monthly/seasonal extent metrics.

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date: datagov lists 2026-03-12, while nasa_earthdata lists 2006-12 31.

Provenance

Source

Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), St. Petersburg, Russia.

Collection Method

Derived from digitized sea ice charts in gridded format.

Time Range

1933 to 2006

Freshness

2026-03 12 21:58:27.082124

Geography

Marginal seas of the Russian Arctic.