From mountain glaciers to polar ice sheets, observations of the world’s frozen regions are essential for understanding climate change and its impacts. Yet valuable scientific data often remain scattered across institutions and difficult to access or combine. A new preprint, co-authored by members of the MRI community, explores how closer collaboration between researchers and operational agencies could help unlock the full potential of these observations.
Monitoring changes in glaciers, snow cover, sea ice, and permafrost is critical for understanding the changing cryosphere and its implications for water resources, ecosystems, and communities worldwide. However, collecting observations in remote polar and high-mountain environments is costly and challenging, while differences in data collection, documentation, and management often limit their wider use.
A new preprint, Improving Access and Interoperability of Cryospheric Data Across Research and Operations, published on EGUsphere, examines how these barriers could be overcome by strengthening collaboration between scientific research communities and operational agencies, such as national meteorological and hydrological services.
The international team of authors, including MRI Executive Director Carolina Adler, MRI Mountain Observatories Working Group Lead Maria Shahgedanova, and former MRI Science Leadership Council member Shawn Marshall, advocates for more consistent implementation of the FAIR data principles: making scientific data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
Particular emphasis is placed on interoperability, or the ability to combine and use observations from different sources without extensive additional processing. The authors outline recommendations for harmonising observation protocols, improving data documentation and governance, ensuring long-term preservation, and strengthening collaboration across institutions and disciplines.
The paper also highlights the particular challenges facing high-mountain research, where monitoring networks and data management practices are often fragmented. It draws attention to the contributions of the MRI and GEO Mountains in bringing together research and operational communities, strengthening observation networks, and improving access to mountain environmental data.
Looking ahead, the authors identify an important coordinating role for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), alongside opportunities presented by the upcoming Fifth International Polar Year (2032–2033), to advance more integrated and sustainable approaches to cryosphere data management.
Ultimately, the paper makes the case that better coordination and data sharing can help ensure that valuable observations are not only preserved, but also used more effectively to advance scientific understanding and support informed decision-making.
Read the Preprint and Join the Discussion
The preprint is freely available on EGUsphere, the European Geosciences Union’s open-access platform for scientific discussion papers.
The paper is currently open for public peer review until 3 December 2026, offering researchers and other interested readers an opportunity to contribute comments and feedback before the review process concludes.
Citation: Godøy, Ø., Nitu, R., Key, J., Pidduck, E., Adler, C., Lübker, T., Berry, D. I., Marshall, S., Ding, B., Felden, J., Alley, K. E., Bavay, M., Shahgedanova, M., Yasmin, R. Y., Motram, R., and Zhong, X. (2026). ‘Improving Access and Interoperability of Cryospheric Data Across Research and Operations,’ EGUsphere [preprint]: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-6231.
Cover image by Simon Fitall.