NASA and Local Arctic Communities Collaborate during IPY
30.03.2007 - Logistics, Other
Changes in Arctic climate have resulted in changes in snow cover and snow conditions. Observing and understanding snow changes are important both for scientists and for local reindeer herders who have to know and even predict snow conditions, because they indicate availability of forage and mobility for herding.
Through projects like The History of Winter (HOW) and The Global Snowflake Network, NASA and reindeer herders are collaborating in order to create a wide data collection network. By combining indigenous traditional knowledge with scientific observations and technological equipment, the common hope is to better understand snow changes in the Arctic and how climate change is affecting reindeer pastoralism.
This collaboration between scientists and local communities stresses the significance of indigenous peoples' institutions in producing and managing knowledge about the Arctic. It also illustrates the focus of the current International Polar Year on changes occurring within Arctic indigenous societies.
