Earth ID: 4786

Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2019 with Area Graph

Visualizations by Trent L. Schindler Released on January 10, 2020

There is a newer version of this story located here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5002

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. This graph displays the area of the minimum sea ice coverage each year from 1979 through 2019. In 2019, the Arctic minimum sea ice covered an area of 3.66 million square kilometers.

This visualization shows the expanse of the annual minimum Arctic sea ice for each year from 1979 through 2019 as derived from passive microwave data. A 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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Visualization Credits

Trent L. Schindler (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Cindy Starr (GST): Visualizer
Josefino Comiso (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Walt Meier (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Robert Gersten (Wyle Information Systems): Sr. Data Analyst
Laurence Schuler (ADNET): Technical Support
Ian Jones (ADNET): Technical Support
Joycelyn Thomson Jones (NASA/GSFC): Project Support
Leann Johnson (GST): 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).

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Data Used:

Comiso's September Minimum Sea Ice Concentration

Data Compilation - NASA/GSFC - 1979-2016

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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
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Climate Indicators >> Cryospheric Indicators >> Sea Ice Concentration

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