The cryosphere - sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, frozen ground, and glaciers - plays a significant role in the Earth's climate system. With respect to the cryosphere, 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 hig
h latitudes, Canada has an obligation to measure, model, and understand the complex relationships between the cryosphere and the Earth's climate system to provide accurate and timely information on cryospheric variability and change to the public and decision makers. The wealth of knowledge and data generated by polar research must be managed to ensure and maximize the exchange and accessibility of relevant data and to leave a lasting legacy. To meet this need, the Canadian Cryospheric Information Network (CCIN) was developed in the mid-1990's through a collaborative partnership between the Federal Government (the Canadian Space Agency, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada), Dr. Ellsworth LeDrew at the University of Waterloo, and the private sector (Noetix Research Inc. of Ottawa, Ontario) over the past decade to provide the data and information management infrastructure for the Canadian cryospheric community. The main objective of the CCIN is to enhance awareness and access to Canadian cryospheric information and related data. CCIN and ArcticNet are the founding partners of the Polar Data Catalogue (PDC), which has been developed as a metadata "Discovery Portal" and data repository for Arctic and Antarctic researchers. The PDC was developed in collaboration with Noetix Research, Inc. and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to facilitate the exchange of information about the Canadian Arctic among researchers and other user groups, including northern communities and international programs. Several other organizations and agencies actively participated in development of the PDC, including Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, the Canadian IPY-Federal program, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Inuit Circumpolar Council, the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP), the ArcticNet Student Association and the Centre for Northern Studies (CEN). The PDC is a founding member of the Canadian Polar Data Network (CPDN), the successor to the Canadian IPY Data Assembly Centre Network.
