Welcome to the Polar Data Catalogue

The Polar Data Catalogue is a repository of metadata and data that describes and provides access to diverse data sets generated by Arctic and Antarctic researchers. The metadata records follow ISO 19115 and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standard formats to provide exchange with other data centres. The records cover a wide range of disciplines from natural sciences and policy, to health and social sciences. The PDC Geospatial Search tool is available to the public and researchers alike and allows searching data using a mapping interface and other parameters.

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Input Data

PDC Search

PDC Search

The PDC Geospatial Search application provides access to a variety of Arctic and Antarctic data. The available collections include: Polar Data and Metadata, RADARSAT Arctic SAR Imagery, RADARSAT Mosaics of the Antarctic, and Canadian Ice Service Sea Ice Charts.

Search for Data
PDC Search

PDC Lite

PDC Lite Search is also available for users with limited Internet speed.

Search Lite
PDC Search

PDC Input

The PDC Data and Metadata Input application provides an interface for researchers in partner programs and organizations to upload and share data with other scientists and the general public.

Input Data
PDC Search
In support of Polar Knowledge Canada, the Polar Data Catalogue has been recognized as the National Antarctic Data Centre (NADC) for Canada. As a party to the Antarctic Treaty, Canada is obliged to make scientific observations and results from research in Antarctic freely available. Stewardship of Canada’s Antarctic research data in the PDC meets this treaty obligation and links us with Antarctic researchers and data managers in dozens of other countries.

Announcements

April 2021: PDC continues to be operational throughout the COVID-19 crisis but please expect minor delays in processing and updates.

March 2021: Try our new Shiny Visualizations (see below).

Maintenance Notice

The website may not be available during the daily maintenance window of 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM Eastern Time.

Warning: If the server is restarted during this time and you are making changes to metadata, the changes will be lost.

CCIN Visualization Tools

Snow Water Equivalent

The SWE tool shows the depth of water (in mm) that would be produced if the snow melted. The coloured contours show variations in SWE derived from passive microwave satellite data.

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Historical SWE

Interactive map of SWE data for the Canadian Prairies, presented in pentads (5-day periods) for years 1978-2007 and in weeks (7-day periods) for years 2010-2012. The coloured contours show variations in SWE derived from passive microwave satellite data.

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Sea Ice Thickness

This tool can animate and graph ice thickness data after selecting the year and stations to be displayed. The data used has been collected under the Ice Thickness Program Collection from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

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Lake Ice Cover

The interactive Lake Ice tool below shows freeze and thaw dates for a large selection of Canadian and US lakes from 2004 to the present.

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Historical Lake Ice Cover

This tool shows freeze-up, break-up, ice thickness, and ice-on duration for a network of Canadian lake ice sites (red dots), 1822-1995.

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Map Viewer Application

The Map Viewer visualization tool displays GIS, CTD and Mooring data available in the Polar Data Catalogue, on an interactive map where data points can be clicked to view data at that specific location.

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Shiny Visualizations

Surface Air Temperature

An interactive time series and Holt-Winters forecast based on 7,084 total records, from 9 observation stations, dating back as early as January 1929.

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Vertical Air Profile

An interactive set of correlations between vertical air profile metrics for a single dataset for Eureka Nunavut.

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