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Multi-year Arctic Sea Ice
- Visualizations by:
- Cindy Starr
- View full credits
This visualization shows the perennial Arctic sea ice from 1980 to 2012. This is not the sea ice minimum, which occurs in September each year. This measures the perennial sea ice that survives the summer and thus exists for longer than a one-year time span. The measurement for this sea ice was taken during the months of November, December and January each year. The date assigned to the data point is the year of the last measurement (January). The grey disk at the North Pole indicates the region where no satellite data is collected. A graph overlay shows the area's size measured in million square kilometers for each year. The '1980','2008', and '2012' data points are highlighted on the graph.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Animators
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
Visualizer
- Cindy Starr (GST) [Lead]
Writer
- Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia (Telophase)
Video editor
- Stuart A. Snodgrass (KBRwyle)
Scientist
- Josefino Comiso (NASA/GSFC)
Producer
- Jefferson Beck (KBRwyle)
Project support
- James W. Williams (GST)
Datasets used in this visualization
DMSP Comiso's Multi-year Sea Ice Concentration (Collected with the SSM/I 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.
Related pages
The Long Thaw
March 5, 2012, 7 p.m.
Read moreThe vast frozen cap that covers the Arctic Ocean crackles with the energy of a continent-sized slab of ice in constant motion. This video details the three-decade decline of the Arctic s oldest, thickest sea ice shriveled to a new record minimum. Scientists were stunned in 2008, when the area of older, thicker sea ice area reduced to 55 percent of its average since the late 1970s. The area covered by older and thicker sea ice in the Arctic diminished by almost 50 percent between 1980 and 2012.
Multi-year Arctic Sea Ice 2014
Jan. 11, 2015, 7 p.m.
Read moreMultiyear Arctic Ice The most visible change in the Arctic region in recent years has been the rapid decline of the perennial ice cover. The perennial ice is the portion of the sea ice floating on the surface of the ocean that survives the summer. This ice that spans multiple years represents the thickest component of the sea ice cover.This visualization shows the perennial Arctic sea ice from 1979 to 2014. A graph overlay shows the area s size measured in million square kilometers for each year. Multiyear Arctic Ice No Graph