2008 Arctic Sea Ice from AMSR-E
- Visualizations by:
- Cindy Starr
- View full credits
The AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite acquires high resolution measurements of the 89 GHz brightness temperature near the poles. Because this is a passive microwave sensor which is not so sensitive to atmospheric effects, this sensor is able to observe the entire polar region every day, even through clouds and snowfall. The false color of the sea ice, derived from the AMSR-E 6.25 km 89 GHz brightness temperature, highlights the fissures or divergence areas in the sea ice cover by warm brightness temperatures (in blue) while cold brightness temperatures, shown in brighter white, represent consolidated sea ice. The sea ice edge is defined by the 15% ice concentration contour in the three-day moving average of the AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice concentration data.
The animations below show the continuous motion of the Arctic sea ice during 2008, from January 1 through September 14, the week during which the Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent. The 2008 minimum extent of 4.52 sq km (1.74 sq miles) is the second lowest extent recorded since 1979.
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).
Visualizer
- Cindy Starr (GST) [Lead]
Producer
- Jefferson Beck (KBRwyle)
Datasets used in this visualization
Aqua Sea Ice Concentration (A.K.A. Daily L3 12.5km Tb, Sea Ice Concentration, and Snow Depth) (Collected with the AMSR-E sensor)
Aqua Daily L3 6.25 km 89 GHz Brightness Temperature (Tb) (Collected with the AMSR-E sensor)
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.