A newer version of this visualization is available.
4435: Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2015 with Area Graph
Sea Ice Minimum Extent for 1979-2004
-
- Visualizations by:
- Greg Shirah
- View full credits
This animation shows the annual minimum sea ice extent and concentration for 25 years, from 1979 to 2004. The year 2002 showed lowest level of sea ice on record. This visualization was created in support of the December 2004 American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting. NOTE: this version has a slightly different camera angle than the 2003 version, animation ID 2850 (the original camera angle was lost).
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio
The Blue Marble Next Generation data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC) and NASA's Earth Observatory.
-
Animators
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- James W. Williams (GST)
-
Scientist
- Josefino Comiso (NASA/GSFC)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Datasets used in this visualization
DMSP (Collected with the SSM/I sensor)
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Special Sensor Microwave Imager
See more visualizations using this data setTerra and Aqua BMNG (A.K.A. Blue Marble: Next Generation) (Collected with the MODIS sensor)
Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
Dataset can be found at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/
See more visualizations using this data setComiso's September Minimum Sea Ice Concentration
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.
Related pages
-
-
ID: 4435 Visualization
Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2015 with Area Graph
Read moreAn animation of the annual Arctic sea ice minimum with a graph overlay showing the area of the minimum sea ice in millions of square kilometers.This video is also available on our YouTube channel. || Satellite-based passive microwave images of the sea ice have provided a reliable tool for continuously monitoring changes in the Arctic ice since 1979. Every summer the Arctic ice cap melts down to what scientists call its "minimum" before colder weather begins to cause ice cover to increase. The ice parameters derived from satellite ice concentration data that are most relevant to climate change studies are sea ice extent and sea ice area. This graph displays the area of the minimum sea ice coverage each year from 1979 through 2015. In 2015, the Arctic minimum sea ice covered an area of 3.885 million square kilometers. This visualization shows the expanse of the annual minimum Arctic sea ice for each year from 1979 through 2015 as derived from SSMI data. A semi-transparent graph overlay shows the area in million square kilometers for each year's minimum day. The date shown in the upper right corner indicates the current year being displayed. ||
-