Trump Administration Decommissions Sea Ice Data That Sounded an Alarm on Arctic Climate Change

Cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are now degrading the datasets used to monitor the most rapidly warming parts of the planet. More such moves are coming, NOAA has warned.

Key datasets used to monitor the impacts of climate change in the Arctic have emerged as the latest victim of cost-cutting by the Trump administration at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), based at the University of Colorado Boulder, announced Tuesday that NOAA was ending its support for data products that document the extent and thickness of sea ice, the accumulation of snow and the retreat of melting glaciers. “As a result, the level of services for affected products below will be reduced to Basic—meaning they will remain accessible but may not be actively maintained, updated, or fully supported,” the center noted.

This blindsided scientists who use the NSIDC’s data. “That’s incredible. Let us walk blindfolded and not gather any information about our surroundings,” said Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine, when informed of the decision by Inside Climate News.

For now, the NSIDC datasets are not disappearing. Some are updated by automated data feeds—for sea ice, the data comes from orbiting satellites. But without ongoing support from NOAA, any technical glitches will take longer to fix, and the NSIDC will struggle to support any users who need help.

“This change in support limits our ability to respond quickly to user inquiries, resolve issues, or maintain these products as thoroughly as before,” the NSIDC said in a statement emailed to Inside Climate News. 

The center is now calling on scientists, educators and others who use the data to help show why it is valuable. “If you rely on these products in your work, research, education, or planning, we invite you to share your story at nsidc@nsidc.org,” the announcement pleaded. “Your input can help us demonstrate the importance of these data sets and advocate for future support.”

NSIDC’s Sea Ice Index, in particular, has been a bellwether of climate change in the Arctic, which is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the globe. The index has charted a steady decline in Arctic sea ice cover, sounding an alarm when it reached a record low in September 2012. The data has been crucial to media coverage of climate change at the poles, used by reporters and graphics specialists to show a tangible effect of global warming.

Beyond its central role in monitoring climate change, the NSIDC data has important operational uses spanning from commercial fisheries to national security. 

“It’s also used for weather and climate prediction, supporting Alaskan communities, guiding shipping and economic activities, informing fisheries management, protecting marine ecosystems, and underpins countless other Arctic geopolitical and security decision-making needs,” said Zack Labe, a climate scientist who regularly posts online visualizations of the threatened datasets. “Any reduction or elimination of these data product services will have significant consequences, well beyond just tracking the state of sea-ice loss.”

Given its widespread use, NOAA’s decision to decommission the Sea Ice Index shocked NSIDC staff. But the budget cuts being demanded of the agency have forced NOAA into difficult decisions. “With the cuts that have to be made, there’s just not a lot of wiggle room,” said Ann Windnagel, program manager for the NOAA collection at the NSIDC.

The NSIDC isn’t the only source of data on sea ice and other aspects of the “cryosphere,” as frozen parts of the Earth are collectively known. Notably, the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation program also maintains data on sea ice. But Copernicus lacks NOAA’s mission to support U.S. communities, businesses and other organizations affected by warming in the Arctic.

Cuts at NOAA are also eroding the scientific workforce needed to make sense of the data compiled by the agency. Labe, who until recently worked at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, is a case in point. Since Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency took aim at NOAA in February, Labe has been fired, then rehired, then fired again. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has dismissed volunteer researchers working on the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, prompting the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union to step into the breach by supporting a similar effort.

Right from the start of the second Trump administration, officials began taking important environmental data offline. Initially, the cuts focused on online tools used to assess the impacts of pollution and climate change on low-income communities—part of a broader assault on environmental justice initiatives that the administration has characterized as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.

But the NSIDC announcement provides the latest sign that data used by climate and other environmental scientists to monitor the planet’s health are also threatened. NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service “Notice of Changes” web page currently lists a variety of data sources being decommissioned, including data from environmental monitoring buoys, on earthquake intensity and listing geothermal springs. 

In a note about the changes posted last month, NOAA suggested that users nominate data sources they want to be saved to the Data Rescue Project, a volunteer effort to archive important federal government data. 

“If any of these data products are of interest — the community must act quickly,” NOAA warned.

Still, private efforts to archive important environmental data can’t fully replace the federal government, said Robert Rohde, chief scientist with Berkeley Earth, a leading nongovernmental source of historical temperature data. “Berkeley Earth is trying to step into the vacuum, but frankly we don’t have the resources—and no one does,” he said. 

Cover photo:  Researchers walk down to the sea at the Argentinean Alimirante Brown Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: Ted Scambos/Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental/UC Boulder