Earth  ID: 4301

Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2014 with Area Graph

Visualizations by Cindy Starr Released on April 8, 2015
There is a newer version of this story located here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5036
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This animation shows the annual Arctic sea ice minimum with a graph overlay that depicts the area of the sea ice in millions of square kilometers.
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. The ice parameters derived from satellite ice concentration data that are most relevant to climate change studies are sea ice extent and sea ice area. This graph displays the area of the minimum sea ice coverage each year from 1979 through 2014. In 2014, the Arctic minimum sea ice covered an area of 4.527 million square kilometers.

This visualization shows the expanse of the annual minimum Arctic sea ice for each year from 1979 to 2014 as derived from SSMI data. A semi-transparent graph overlay shows the area in million square kilometers for each year's minimum day. The date shown in the upper right corner indicates the current year being displayed.
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This animation shows the annual Arctic sea ice minimum from 1979 through 2014 with a date.
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The graph overlay with transparency showing the annual sea ice area in millions of square kilometers
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The date overlay with transparency
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An image of the Arctic sea ice minimum on September 21, 1979
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An image of the Arctic sea ice minimum on September 18, 2014
 

Newer Versions

Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Area 1979-2022, With Graph
Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Area 1979-2022
Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2020 with Area Graph
Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2019 with Area Graph
Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2018 with Area Graph
Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2016 with Area Graph
Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2015 with Area Graph

Related

Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2017 (SSMI data)

Visualization Credits

Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Josefino Comiso (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Robert Gersten (Wyle Information Systems): Sr. Data Analyst
Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Project Support
Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Project Support
Eric Sokolowsky (GST): Project Support
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4301

Data Used:
Comiso's September Minimum Sea Ice Concentration
Data Compilation - NASA/GSFC - 1979-2014
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 Annual Sea Ice Minimum with Graph Overlay

Keywords:
DLESE >> Cryology
SVS >> HDTV
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Sea Ice Concentration
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Sea Ice >> Sea Ice Concentration
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> Presentation

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