This paper describes a new NOAA initiative to broadly improve the global measurement, modeling, analysis, and forecasting of snow and ice, including seasonal snowpacks, river and lake ice, frozen soil, and sea ice. The FY06 NOAA-wide initiative is focused on infusing recent advancements in cold-region science and technology into NOAA's operational services, and will improve coordination between the many offices within NOAA that share responsibility for providing snow and ice information. Specific improvements planned in the initiative include a) expansion of high-resolution (1-km2) gridded snowpack analyses from the coterminous U.S. to all of North America, b) initiation of high-resolution (1-km2) satellite-derived fractional snow cover mapping for all of North America, c) expansion of automated moderate-resolution (4-km2) satellite snow-cover mapping from North America to global coverage, d) improvement of snow physics in climate, water, and weather models, e) development of improved snow-data assimilation techniques, f) development of improved radiative transfer models for snow-microwave interactions, and g) development of improved microwave remote sensing instruments and techniques for remote sensing of snow and ice properties.