Arctic Sea Ice Maximum - 2016
- Visualizations by:
- Cindy Starr
- View full credits
An animation of the Arctic sea ice from September 7th, 2015 through March 24th, 2016 with dates
This video is also available on our YouTube channel.
While a low maximum gives the extent a head start heading into summer, it turns out that there is not much relation between the maximum and summer minimum and a record low maximum does not portend a record low minimum. This is because the ice near the edge at the time of the maximum is thin, seasonal ice that will melt out early in the summer. The weather conditions in the Arctic during the summer melt season is the most crucial in determining whether a record low is possible in any given year.
In this animation, the Arctic sea ice area is derived from a running 3-day maximum of the AMSR2 sea ice concentration where the concentration is greater than 15%. The blueish white color of the sea ice is derived from a 3-day running minimum of the AMSR2 89 GHz brightness temperature that is linearly mapped between the high and low values.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
Visualizer
- Cindy Starr (GST) [Lead]
Scientists
- Josefino Comiso (NASA/GSFC)
- Walt Meier (NASA/GSFC)
Producers
- Jefferson Beck (KBRwyle)
- Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia (Telophase)
- Michelle Handleman (KBRwyle)
Sr. data analyst
- Robert Gersten (SGT)
Datasets used in this visualization
SHIZUKU (GCOM-W1) 10 km Daily 89 GHz Brightness Temperature (Collected with the AMSR2 sensor)
Credit: AMSR2 data courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
See more visualizations using this data setSHIZUKU (GCOM-W1) 10 km Daily Sea Ice Concentration (Collected with the AMSR2 sensor)
Credit: AMSR2 data courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
See more visualizations using this data setTerra and Aqua BMNG (A.K.A. Blue Marble: Next Generation) (Collected with the MODIS sensor)
Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
Dataset can be found at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/
See more visualizations using this data setNote: 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.
Related pages
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April 19th, 2008
Read moreThe 2009 maximum sea ice extent that occurred on February 28, 2009. The 2008 maximum sea ice extent that occurred on March 9, 2008. The 2007 maximum sea ice extent that occurred on March 11, 2007. The 2006 maximum sea ice extent that occurred on March 10, 2006. The 2005 maximum sea ice extent that occurred on March 7, 2005. The 2004 maximum sea ice extent that occurred on February 27, 2004. The 2003 maximum sea ice extent that occurred on March 20, 2003. Sea ice is frozen seawater floating on the surface of the ocean, typically averaging a few meters in thickness. 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 maximum extent at the end of each winter, generally in February or March. This series of images of the yearly sea ice maximum extent depicts data from the AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite. The false color in these images of sea ice is derived from the daily AMSR-E 6.25 km 89 GHz brightness temperature while the sea ice extent is derived from the daily AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice concentration. Related pages
Loop of AMSR-E Daily Arctic Sea Ice from Aug 2005 to Aug 2006
Sept. 29th, 2006
Read moreThis animation shows the seasonal advance and retreat of sea ice over the Arctic from 8/5/2005 through 8/4/2006. The yearly cycle is repeated three times while the camera circles the Arctic, providing a view of the sea ice from a wide range of viewpoints. This image shows the sea ice above North America on 04/26/2006. This image shows the Arctic sea ice north of Russia on 10/09/2005, as viewed from over the East Siberian Sea. This image shows the Arctic sea ice above North America on 09/27/2005, viewed over the Beaufort Sea. This image shows the Arctic sea ice north of Russia on 09/27/2005, as viewed from over the East Siberian Sea. This image shows the Arctic sea ice on 12/01/2005 as viewed from the Bering Strait. This image shows the color bar applied to the AMSR-E brightness temperature data. 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. Sea ice is almost always in motion, reacting to ocean currents and to winds. The AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite acquires high resolution measurements of the 89 GHz brightness temperature near the poles. Because this is a passive microwave sensor and independent of atmospheric effects, this sensor is able to observe the entire polar region every day, even through clouds and snowfalls. This animation of AMSR-E 89 GHz brightness temperature in the northern hemisphere during late 2005 and early 2006 clearly shows the dynamic motion of the ice as well as its seasonal expansion and contraction. This animation shows the seasonal advance and retreat of sea ice over the Arctic from 8/5/2005 through 8/4/2006. The false color of the sea ice, derived from the AMSR-E 6.25 km 89 GHz brightness temperature, highlights the fissures in the sea ice by showing warmer areas of ice in a deeper blue and colder areas of sea ice in a brighter white. The sea ice extent is defined by a three-day moving average of the AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice concentration, showing as ice all areas having a sea ice concentration greater than 15%. Related pages
Annual Sea Ice Cycle over Northern Canada
Sept. 12th, 2006
Read moreThis animation depicts the seasonal sea ice change in northern Canada by cycling twice through August 5, 2005 to August 5, 2006. Hudson Bay sea ice on November 14, 2005. Hudson Bay sea ice on April 29, 2006. Over the course of a year, sea ice in northern Canada pulsates down into the Hudson Bay and retreats northward in the summer months. In the winter months where the sea ice extends down into the bay, polar bears wander onto the ice in search of food. As summer approaches and the sea ice melts, the bears wander back onto the mainland until the next winter. Data for this animation was gathered from the Aqua satellite's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). Aqua is a NASA satellite and the AMSR-E instrument onboard was provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). For more information on this story, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/polar_bears.html For More InformationSee [http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/polar_bears.html](http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/polar_bears.html) Related pages
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Sept. 12th, 2006
Read moreArctic sea ice maximum extent 1979-2006 Arctic sea ice maximum extent (1979-2006) with solid cumulative area in the background Date overlays 1979-2006 Arctic sea ice maximum extent 1979-2006 with dates Arctic sea ice maximum extent (1979-2006) with solid cumulative area in the background and with dates 2006 Arctic sea ice maximum extent (10 March 2006) 2006 Arctic sea ice maximum extent (10 March 2006) with solid cumulative area for 1979-2006 2006 Arctic sea ice maximum extent (10 March 2006) with outline Sea ice cumulative maximum extent overlay outline for 1979-2006 This visualization shows the annual maximum amount of winter Arctic ice from 1979 to 2006. In 2005 and 2006, the winter ice maximum was about 6% smaller than the average winter ice over the 26 year period. The expected winter ice retreat is 1.5 to 2% loss per decade. The same data is also shown with a yellow region representing the cumulative or maximum extent of winter ice observed from 1979 to 2006. Related pages
2005 Sea Ice over the Arctic derived from AMSR-E
Jan. 29th, 2006
Read moreThis animation shows the motion of the sea ice over the Arctic from 1/1/2005 through 12/31/2005. This product is available through our Web Map Service. This image shows sea ice over the Arctic on March 11,2005. This animation shows the Spring retreat and subsequent Autumn advance of sea ice over the Arctic from 1/1/2005 through 12/31/2005. The false color of the sea ice, derived from the AMSR-E 6.25 km brightness temperature, was designed to highlight the fissures in the sea ice. Moving 3-day minimum brightness temperatures provide a background for smooth ice movement over which the actual daily brightness temperatures were mapped for definition of the ice structures. The sea ice extent was defined by a 3-day moving average of the AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice concentration, showing as ice all areas having a sea ice concentration greater than 15%. Related pages
Untitled
April 5th, 2016
Read moreArctic sea ice was at a record low wintertime maximum extent for the second straight year. This visualization shows the Arctic sea ice freeze cycle from Sept. 7, 2015, up to this year’s winter maximum on Mar. 24, 2016. Wind patterns in the Arctic during January and February 2016 brought warm air from the south and prevented expansion of the ice cover. This year's Arctic sea ice maximum extent (shown above) covers an area of 5.607 million square miles, and is the lowest in the satellite record. The orange line above shows how this year's sea ice pack compares to the average maximum coverage in March observed from 1981-2010. For More InformationSee [NASA.gov](http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/2016-arctic-sea-ice-wintertime-extent-hits-another-record-low) Related pages
Sea Ice Maximum/Operation IceBridge Live Shots
March 22nd, 2016
Read moreB-roll and canned interviews will be added on Thursday, March 24 Record Low Sea Ice Live Shot Roll-ins/B-Roll Dr. Walt Meier talks about Arctic sea ice. Just three months into 2016 and already global temperatures – particularly in the Arctic – are far warmer than normal. Global temperatures for February were the warmest on record for that month.Nowhere is this warming trend felt more than in theArctic where the unusual wintertime warmth has contributed to record low wintertime sea ice extent. Arctic sea ice keeps the Polar Regions cold and helps regulate global temperatures. The shrinking of sea ice is a key indicator of our planet’s health.NASA is monitoring the health of the Arctic from space and the ground. In the coming days NASA will launch two missions – Operation Ice Bridge and OMG (Oceans Melting Greenland). These airborne and ground campaigns to the Arctic will take measurements of sea ice and glacier thickness.Join NASA scientists on Friday, March 25 from 6:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. EDT to see new images of this year’s sea ice extent; talk about how the Arctic faired this winter; and find out the latest on NASA missions to the Arctic set to launch in the coming days.Suggested Questions:1. What do the latest images show us about this year’s winter in the Arctic?2. What do the images tell us about the long-term trend?3. NASA is getting ready to send out teams of scientists to the Arctic in the comingdays. What will they be doing?4. Where can we learn more?*** To book a window contact***Michelle Handleman / michelle.z.handleman@nasa.govClick for sea ice Flickr gallery. For More InformationSee [nasa.gov/earth](nasa.gov/earth) Related pages
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March 22nd, 2017
Read moreThis movie begins at Arctic Minimum on September 10, 2016 and shows daily sea ice concentration until the Arctic maximum on March 7, 2017. The 2017 Arctic maximum was 14.42 million square kilometers (5.57 million square miles). The average maximum (1981-2010) is 15.64 million square kilometers. The Arctic sea ice extent minimum on September 10, 2016. The Arctic sea ice movie extended through July 2017. This animation shows the seasonal change in the extent of the Arctic sea ice between the Arctic minimum, September 10, 2016, and Arctic maximum on March 7, 2017. Arctic sea ice appears to have reached a record low wintertime maximum extent, according to scientists at NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo. This winter, a combination of warmer-than-average temperatures, winds unfavorable to ice expansion, and a series of storms halted sea ice growth in the Arctic. This year’s maximum extent, reached on March 7 at 5.57 million square miles (14.42 million square kilometers), is only about 40,000 square miles below the previous record low, which occurred in 2016, The images shown here portray the sea ice as it was observed by the AMSR2 instrument onboard the Japanese Shizuku satellite. The opacity of the sea ice is derived from the AMSR2 sea ice concentration. The blueish white color of the sea ice is derived from the AMSR2 89 GHz brightness temperature. The annual cycle starts with the minimum extent reached on August 31, 2016 and runs through the daily sea ice concentration until the maximum occurs on March 3, 2017. The Arctic’s sea ice maximum extent has dropped by an average of 2.8 percent per decade since 1979, the year satellites started measuring sea ice. The summertime minimum extent losses are nearly five times larger: 13.5 percent per decade. Besides shrinking in extent, the sea ice cap is also thinning and becoming more vulnerable to the action of ocean waters, winds and warmer temperatures. Related pages
Arctic Sea Ice Maximum - 2015
March 19th, 2015
Read moreAn animation of the Arctic sea ice from October 1, 2014 to February 25, 2015 when the ice reached its maximum annual extent. The 2015 maximum is then compared to the average 1979-2014 maximum shown in yellow. A distance indicator shows the difference between the two in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Japan. The same animation as above without the date and text labels. An image of the Arctic sea ice on February 25, 2015 shown over the 1979-2014 average maximum sea ice concentration, shown here in yellow. An image of the 2015 Arctic maximum sea ice on February 25, 2015. An image of the Arctic sea ice on February 25, 2015 when the ice reached its maximum annual extent. The 2015 maximum is compared to the 1979-2014 average maximum shown in yellow. A distance indicator shows the difference between the two in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Japan. An image of the Arctic sea ice on February 25, 2015 shown over the 1979-2014 average maximum sea ice concentration, shown here in yellow. An image of the 2015 Arctic maximum sea ice on February 25, 2015. An image viewed from the north of the Arctic sea ice on February 25, 2015 shown over the 1979-2014 average maximum sea ice concentration, displayed here in yellow. An image viewed from the north of the 2015 Arctic maximum sea ice on February 25, 2015. The text overlay with transparency The maximum Arctic sea ice extent appears to have occurred on February 25, 2015, reaching an extent of 14.52 million square kilometers (5.61 million square miles). If the February 25 value holds, it would be one of the earliest maximums on record, 15 days earlier than normal, and the lowest extent in the satellite record starting in 1979. It is 129,500 square kilometers (50,000 square miles) below the previous lowest maximum recorded in 2011. Overall, there is a declining trend in the maximum extent of about 2.5 % per decade. This is much smaller than the summer trends, but also reflects the long-term warming trend in the Arctic.While a low maximum gives the extent a head start heading into summer, it turns out that there is very little relation between the maximum and summer minimum and a record low maximum does not portend a record low minimum. This is because the ice near the edge at the time of the maximum is thin, seasonal ice that will melt out early in the summer. The weather conditions in the Arctic during the summer melt season is the most crucial in determining whether a record low is possible in any given year. Related pages
AMSR-E Arctic Sea Ice: September 2010 to March 2011
March 28th, 2011
Read moreAn animation of the Arctic sea ice from September 17th 2009 through March 16, 2011 with a date overlay and a star background. An animation of the Arctic sea ice from September 17th 2009 through March 16, 2011 with a date overlay and transparency. An animation of the star background matching the above animation. A print resolution still image of the Arctic sea ice on March 16, 2011. 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.In this animation, the Arctic sea ice and seasonal land cover change progress through time, from the 2010 minimum which occurred on September 17 through March 16, 2011. Over the water, Arctic sea ice changes from day to day showing a running 3-day maximum sea ice concentration in the region where the concentration is greater than 15%. The blueish white color of the sea ice is derived from a 3-day running maximum of the AMSR-E 89 GHz brightness temperature. Over the terrain, monthly data from the seasonal Blue Marble Next Generation fades slowly from month to month. Related pages
AMSR-E Arctic Sea Ice: September 2009 to March 2010
March 28th, 2010
Read moreThe composite animation showing the sea ice over a star field background with dates. The sea ice animation without the dates or star background with transparency. The star background with transparency. The date sequence with transparency. A print resolution image of the Arctic sea ice with a star background on March 6, 2010. A print resolution image of the Arctic sea ice with a star background on March 31, 2010. 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.In this animation, the Arctic sea ice and seasonal land cover change progress through time, from September 1, 2009 when sea ice in the Arctic was near its minimum extent, through March 30, 2010. The animation plays at a rate of six frames per day or ten days per second. Over the water, Arctic sea ice changes from day to day showing a running 3-day maximum sea ice concentration in the region where the concentration is greater than 15%. The blueish white color of the sea ice is derived from a 3-day running maximum of the AMSR-E 89 GHz brightness temperature. Over the terrain, monthly data from the seasonal Blue Marble Next Generation fades slowly from month to month. Related pages