Earth  ID: 11081

Vanishing

Story by Patrick Lynch Released on September 25, 2012
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Arctic sea ice continued its long-running disappearing act in the summer of 2012.
On September 16, 2012, sea ice in the Arctic reached a new record low, covering less area than at any point in the three decades of satellite records. Arctic sea ice melts each spring and summer, reaching its minimum size in mid-September. During the fall and winter months the ice returns, beginning a new freeze-thaw cycle. However, as ocean and surface temperatures in the Arctic have increased in recent decades, analysis by NASA scientists has shown the area of the annual sea ice minimum is declining even faster than climate models predicted. What's worse is that this trend has shown no sign of letting up. The visualization shows satellite measurements of the Arctic sea ice minimum each year from 1979 to 2012, a period in which the area of the minimum shrunk by half.
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Arctic sea ice gradually declined in the 1980s and 1990s followed by accelerated ice loss since 2000.
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By the late 1980s, the minimum area had begun to tick down, but registered barely below the initial 1979 measurement.
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In 1999 scientists observed an increase in summer sea ice melt and a new record minimum.
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Sea ice in 2007 made a drastic single-year plunge, as the minimum area dropped 40 percent below the 1979-2000 average.
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Despite year-to-year variation, the area of the annual Arctic sea ice minimum is declining and the decline is accelerating.
 

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Sea Ice Yearly Minimum 1979-2012 (SSMI data) with Graph
September Arctic Minimum Arctic Sea Ice 2012
Sea Ice Yearly Minimum 1979-2011 (SSMI data)

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

Visualizers/Animators:
Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)

Producers:
Jefferson Beck (USRA)
Patrick Lynch (Wyle Information Systems)

Lead Scientists:
Josefino Comiso (NASA/GSFC)
Robert Gersten (RSIS)

Lead Writer:
Patrick Lynch (Wyle Information Systems)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11081

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Earth