Sea ice advances and retreats in concert with the seasons. Monthly sea ice climatology is created by averaging the sea ice for each month over a period of many years. This animation shows the monthly average sea ice climatology over the Arctic region derived from years 1979 through 2002.
Please give credit for this item to: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).