Of all the regions on the planet, the Arctic currently shows the biggest rise in average temperature due to global warming, and is one of the regions expected to become most affected by climate change on the Earth in the future. The change in the Arctic area brings a profound impact to the global climate system through changes in interactions between the atmosphere, ocean circulation, and the cryosphere. These climate changes not only impact upon human activities, but also the Arctic flora and fauna ecosystem.

Large parts of the observations and mechanisms of the environmental change, including the climate of the Arctic region, are still not well understood. In order to further our understanding of these complex systems, an integrated study carried out with continuous observations in the Arctic is proposed. In the Arctic Environmental Observation Center in the National Institute of Polar Research, operations began on the Arctic Data archive System (ADS) in March 2012, in order to promote the mutual use of scientific data.

The purpose of the Arctic Data archive System is to archive and distribute multiple observational (atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial, and ecology) and model simulation datasets, and promote utilization of these datasets. ADS is the central repository of archived data on Arctic research in Japan.

ADS is supported by GRENE Arctic Climate Change Research Project (GRENE-Arctic) from Apr. 2011 to Mar. 2016. Since Sep. 2015, ADS has been supported by the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS). Both projects is funded from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan.