Earth ID: 3371

Three-Year Average September Minimum Sea Ice Concentration 1979 - 2005

Visualizations by Cindy Starr Released on September 27, 2006

There is a newer version of this story located here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4435

Sea ice is frozen seawater floating on the surface of the ocean. Some sea ice is permanent, persisting from year to year, and some is seasonal, melting and refreezing from season to season. Because the extent of the sea ice is important both for the Arctic marine ecology and for the role it plays in the Earth's climate, understanding the variation of this extent during the year and from year-to-year is vital. Each year, the minimum sea ice extent in the northern hemisphere occurs at the end of summer, in September. By comparing the extent of the sea ice in September over many successive years, long term trends in the polar climate can be assessed. This animation shows the three-year moving average September mean sea ice concentration in the northern hemisphere from 1979-1981 through 2003-2005. Since 1999, this minimum has shown an ice extent that is consistently 10% to 15% smaller than the average extent over the past 20 years.

This element contains the overlay date bar that indicates the range of years averaged to compute the September mean along with a month label in the upper left corner.

Newer Version

Visualization Credits

Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Stuart A. Snodgrass (GST): Animator
Waleed Abdalati (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Walt Meier (NSIDC): Scientist

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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