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Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 2021
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- Visualizations by:
- Trent L. Schindler
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- Written by:
- Roberto Molar-Candanosa
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- Scientific consulting by:
- Walt Meier
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- Produced by:
- Kathleen Gaeta
- View full credits
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. An analysis of satellite data by NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder shows that the 2021 minimum extent, which was likely reached on Sept. 16, measured 1.82 million square miles (4.72 million square kilometers).
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) provides many water-related products derived from data acquired by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) instrument aboard the Global Change Observation Mission 1st-Water "SHIZUKU" (GCOM-W1) satellite. Two JAXA datasets used in this animation are the 10-km daily sea ice concentration and the 10 km daily 89 GHz Brightness Temperature.
In this animation, the daily Arctic sea ice and seasonal land cover change progress through time, from the yearly maximum ice extent on March 21 2021, through its minimum on September 16 2021. Over the water, Arctic sea ice changes from day to day showing a running 3-day minimum sea ice concentration in the region where the concentration is greater than 15%. The blueish white color of the sea ice is derived from a 3-day running minimum of the AMSR2 89 GHz brightness temperature. The yellow boundary shows the minimum extent averaged over the 30-year period from 1981 to 2010. Over the terrain, monthly data from the seasonal Blue Marble Next Generation fades slowly from month to month. The faint circle that appears periodically close to the pole is an artifact of the visualization process, and does not represent a real feature.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animators
- Trent L. Schindler (USRA) [Lead]
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
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Writer
- Roberto Molar-Candanosa (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
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Scientist
- Walt Meier (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Producer
- Kathleen Gaeta (GSFC Interns) [Lead]
Datasets used in this visualization
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Terra and Aqua BMNG (Blue Marble: Next Generation)
ID: 508Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
This dataset can be found at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/
See all pages that use this dataset -
SHIZUKU (GCOM-W1) 10 km Daily Sea Ice Concentration
ID: 795Credit: AMSR2 data courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
See all pages that use this dataset -
SHIZUKU (GCOM-W1) 10 km Daily 89 GHz Brightness Temperature
ID: 796Credit: AMSR2 data courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
See all pages that use this dataset
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.