The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) was created in 1961. CRREL was a consolidation of two pre-existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers laboratories that focused on engineering in cold regions, the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE) and the Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory (ACFEL). CRREL was based in Hanover, New Hampshire and was initially heavily focused on basic and applied research related to frozen ground, permafrost, snow and ice. In 1999 CRREL was brought into the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) organization. Its current areas of research include biogeochemical sciences, engineering resources, force projection and sustainment in cold regions, military terrestrial science and phenomenology, polar science and engineering, remote sensing and geographical information science (GIS), signature physics, and snow and ice in temperate and mountain regions.