This is what the Arctic looks like today.

We know it's warming faster than anywhere else, and the sea ice is disappearing.

But what was the Arctic like in the past, when explorers and whale hunters first sailed here?

The citizen-scientists of Old Weather are finding out, from thousands of ships' logbooks preserved at the National Archives, and in museums around the world.

Millions of observations are carefully recorded in these logs -

observations on the weather and everything else that happened on the ship.

This is the raw data of history.

Once the handwritten logs are converted to digital format they can be analyzed anew, using some of the most powerful computers in the world.

New insights are gleaned from old data in ways that would have been impossible just a few years ago.

With longer perspective provided by Old Weather, we learn more about weather patterns all over the world,

and how they are linked to the disappearing ice in the Arctic.

With this knowledge we can better project what future climate will be like, and how it will affect us all.

You can help - become an Old Weather citizen-scientist and rediscover the Arctic of the past.