Earth  ID: 3631

Daily Arctic Sea Ice - Summer 2009

Visualizations by Cindy Starr Released on September 7, 2009
There is a newer version of this story located here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4684
Sea ice is frozen seawater floating on the surface of the ocean. Some sea ice is semi-permanent, persisting from year to year, and some is seasonal, melting and refreezing from season to season. The sea ice cover reaches its minimum extent at the end of each summer and the remaining ice is called the perennial ice cover.

Duing the summer of 2009, the arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent on September 12th. The 2009 minimum extent was the third lowest extent measured since the beginning of the satellite record in 1979. This animation shows the summer retreat of sea ice over the Arctic from 7/1/2009 through 9/12/2009. The sea ice was defined by a 3-day moving average of the AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice concentration, showing the region where the sea ice concentration was greater than 15%. The false color of the sea ice was derived from the AMSR-E 6.25 km brightness temperature.

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This animation shows the retreat of the sea ice over the Arctic from 7/1/2009 through 9/12/2009

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Newer Versions

AMSR2 2018 Minimum Arctic Sea Ice Extent
AMSR2 2015 Minimum Arctic Sea Ice Extent

Visualization Credits

Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Trent L. Schindler (UMBC): Animator
Laura Motel (UMBC): Producer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3631

Data Used:
Aqua/AMSR-E/Daily L3 6.25 km 89 GHz Brightness Temperature (Tb)
2009/07/01 - 2009/09/07
view all stories where this data set is used
Aqua/AMSR-E/Level 3 12.5 km Sea Ice Concentration also referred to as: Sea Ice Concentration
2009/07/01 - 2009/09/07
view all stories where this data set is used
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.

This item is part of this series:
Arctic Sea Ice 2009

Keywords:
DLESE >> Cryology
SVS >> Global Warming
SVS >> HDTV
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Sea Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Ice Extent
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Sea Ice Concentration
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Sea Ice Motion
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Freeze/Thaw
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Ice Extent
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Ice Growth/Melt
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Ice Motion
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Hydrosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Ice Extent
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Hydrosphere >> Snow/Ice >> Ice Motion
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Sea Ice >> Ice Extent
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Sea Ice >> Ice Growth/Melt
SVS >> Copenhagen
SVS >> For Educators
SVS >> Arctic Circle >> Glaciers
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0