Science on a Sphere: Global Sea Ice

This visualization shows daily Arctic and Antarctic sea ice (white) and seasonal land cover change (green, white, and brown) over a two-year period between 2023 and 2024. Global snow cover and sea ice waxes and wanes with the seasons due to the tilt of the Earth during its revolution around the Sun each year. The shrinking of ice and snow in the Northern Hemisphere occurs while it is growing in the Southern Hemisphere, since the North Pole is tilted away from the Sun when the South Pole is tilted towards it. The patterns flip every six months.

This visualization shows daily Arctic and Antarctic sea ice (white) and seasonal land cover change (green, white, and brown) over a two-year period between 2023 and 2024. Global snow cover and sea ice waxes and wanes with the seasons due to the tilt of the Earth during its revolution around the Sun each year. The shrinking of ice and snow in the Northern Hemisphere occurs while it is growing in the Southern Hemisphere, since the North Pole is tilted away from the Sun when the South Pole is tilted towards it. The patterns flip every six months.