Arctic Ice The dramatic changes in sea ice have caught the attention of the nation. You are interested in seeing what all the hoopla is about. You want to look at changes in the polar oceans, both sea ice and variables that influence sea ice, such as ocean temperature, wind speeds, atmospheric pressure, and atmospheric temperature. Things you might also be interested in: How rapid are changes (week to week changes, month to month changes)? Are there any changes to primary production from changing sea ice? How is the land snow / sea ice freeze and thaw cycle changing from season to season? Data requirements from both PO.DAAC and NSIDC Reviewers (PO.DAAC UWG) David Glover Mike Caruso

Arctic Ice Lead reviewer began with an ISI (Scientific citation index) search –Important academic approach –Datasets and DAAC resources are not always well described –How can this be improved? Through ISI found modern Arctic Ocean primary productivity publications –no links to DAAC data, dead end route Made a diversion and checked an Antarctic “ice extent” publication –Did find satellite data at NSIDC identified by name and web address Refocused on the Arctic and found an important reference –Comiso, J. C., and F. Nishio (2008), Trends in the sea ice cover using enhanced and compatible AMSR-E, SSM/I, and SMMR data, J. Geophys. Res. –NO http// reference given to where the data came from

Arctic Ice - obviously important

Arctic Ice Change tactic - go directly to NSIDC and PO.DAAC web sites Using “recent sea ice changes“ at NSIDC finds a good path, see below At PO.DAAC “ recent sea ice changes” search gave no promising results.

Arctic Ice Review team conclusions –Only one of three ISI 2008 papers identified data sources adequately –Found supporting figures/plots at NSIDC, but difficult to find data behind them. –POET access to “mean SST” leads to GHRSST L4 a request for time series over loads the system- repeatedly (meaning?) –Through POET an arctic time series Reynolds OI mean SST is generated The global mean time series ( forward) is hard to interpret - is it really global, labeling is suspicious. Steve’s comments –Need better on site search and discovery –The knowledge vector is not always simple parameter “recent sea ice change”, not “ice”, SST, etc. Need to accommodate the ways users think about –Mixed access (observations and analyses) from POET may require stronger links to documentation Must understand analysis method to understand output, e.g. high arctic summary from Reynolds