Earth  ID: 4750

Weekly Arctic Sea Ice Age with Graph of Ice Age By Area: 1984 - 2019

One significant change in the Arctic region in recent years has been the rapid decline in perennial sea ice. Perennial sea ice, also known as multi-year ice, is the portion of the sea ice that survives the summer melt season. Perennial ice may have a life-span of nine years or more and represents the thickest component of the sea ice; perennial ice can grow up to four meters thick. By contrast, first year ice that grows during a single winter is generally at most two meters thick.

Above is a visualization of the weekly sea ice age between 1984 and 2019. The animation shows the seasonal variability of the ice, growing in the Arctic winter and melting in the summer. In addition, this also shows the changes from year to year, depicting the age of the sea ice in different colors. Younger sea ice, or first-year ice, is shown in a dark shade of blue while the ice that is over four years old is shown as white. A color scale identifies the age of the intermediary years.

Note that data for the sea ice age is not available along the coastlines. The region where data is not available is shown in a dark lavender color.

A graph in the upper left corner the quantifies the change over time by showing the area covered by sea ice that is 4 years old or older in millions of square kilometers. This graph also includes a memory bar - the green line that indicates the maximum value seen thus far in the animation for the given week being displayed. For example, when viewing the sea ice age for the first week in September, the memory bar will display the maximum value seen for the first week of September in all prior years from the beginning of the animation (1984).

In addition, a violet bar indicates the average area covered by sea ice greater than 4 years of age during the the 20-year time period from 1984 through 2003.

Below are matching pairs of images showing identical weeks in two different years, where one year is late in the time series and the other is early. These matched images are labeled Pair 1A and Pair 1B. The caption below the image provides additional details. Each image is available with and without the graph.
 

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Visualization Credits

Lead Visualizer:
Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)

Visualizer:
Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)

Scientist:
Walt Meier (NASA/GSFC)

Producers:
Jefferson Beck (USRA)
Katie Jepson (USRA)

Writer:
Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia (Telophase)

Project Support:
Leann Johnson (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)

Technical Support:
Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4750

Data Used:
Aqua, BUOYS, DMSP 5D-2/F11, DMSP 5D-2/F13, DMSP 5D-2/F8, DMSP 5D-3/F17, MODELS, NOAA-10, NOAA-11, NOAA-14, NOAA-16, NOAA-7, NOAA-9, Nimbus-7/AMSR-E, AVHRR, DRIFTING BUOYS, SMMR, SSM/I, SSMIS/EASE-Grid Sea Ice Age, Version 4
Observed Data - NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center - 01-01-1984 to 12-31-2018
This data set provides weekly estimates of sea ice age for the Arctic Ocean derived from remotely sensed sea ice motion and sea ice extent.
Credit:
EASE-Grid Sea Ice Age, Version 4:
NSIDC/Mark Tschudi, Walter Meier, J Stewart, Charles Fowler, Jim Maslanik
BUOYS, DMSP 5D-3/F18/DRIFTING BUOYS, SSMIS/Quicklook Arctic Weekly EASE-Grid Sea Ice Age, Version 1
Observed Data - NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center - 01-01-2019 to 07-31-2019
This data set is the quicklook version of the EASE-Grid Sea Ice Age product. It is derived from the Quicklook Arctic Weekly EASE-Grid Sea Ice Motion Vectors data set.
Credit:
Quicklook Arctic Weekly EASE-Grid Sea Ice Age, Version 1:
NSIDC/Mark Tschudi, Walter Meier, J Stewart
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.

Keywords:
DLESE >> Cryology
DLESE >> Physical oceanography
SVS >> Sea Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Climate Indicators
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Sea Ice
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Sea Ice >> Sea Ice Age
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Sea Ice >> Sea Ice Age
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> Ice Melt >> Climage Change
NASA Science >> Earth
NASA Earth Science Focus Areas >> Climate Variability and Change

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