Scientists Release Secret Arctic Studies

Vice President Al Gore announced the release Tuesday of once-secret U.S. and Russian scientific data on the Arctic Ocean, more than doubling the amount of information that is publicly known about the sea.

Scientists said the information, gathered for military and intelligence purposes over five decades, would be vital to understanding and forecasting weather patterns and would serve as the benchmark for measuring global-warming trends.

“The Arctic Ocean serves as an early warning system for global climate change,” the vice president said.

“Some of science’s most sought-after data has literally come in from the cold.”