The Canadian Cryospheric Information Network: facilitating access to sea ice, lake ice, snow cover, permafrost, and glacier data

Abstract

The cryosphere - sea ice, lake ice, snow cover, frozen ground, and glaciers - plays a significant role in the Earth's climate system. Canada occupies a unique geographic position on the globe: almost half of the planet's northern cryosphere falls within Canada's territorial boundaries. Under the current conditions of rapid climate change over northern high latitudes, Canada has an obligation to measure, model, and understand the complex relationships between the cryosphere and the Earth's climate system in order to provide accurate and timely information on cryospheric variability and change to the public and decision makers. Access to timely, comprehensive, and quality cryospheric data is an obstacle to improved knowledge and understanding of the cryosphere in Canada. Important data sets reside in various government or university labs, where they remain largely unknown or where access restrictions prevent effective use. The Canadian Cryospheric Information Network (CCIN) was designed to address this problem by improving the availability and access to cryospheric data sets. In this paper we describe the functionality of the CCIN and its benefits for both the Canadian cryospheric research community and the public at large.