Earth  ID: 12032

Antarctic Sea Ice Update

Story by Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia | Visualizations by Cindy Starr Released on October 27, 2015
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This year’s Antarctic sea ice maximum extent is the lowest since 2008.
The sea ice cover of the Southern Ocean reached its yearly maximum extent on October 6, 2015. After three years of consecutive record high peak extents, this year’s extent of 7.27 million square miles falls roughly in the middle of the record of Antarctic maximum extents compiled during the 37 years of satellite measurements. This year’s maximum extent occurred fairly late: the mean date of the Antarctic maximum is September 23 for 1981-2010. The growth of Antarctic sea ice was erratic this year and scientists believe that the strong El Niño event forming over the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean had a role in the behavior of the sea ice cover. El Niño causes higher sea level pressure, warmer air temperature and warmer sea surface temperature in areas of Antarctica, affecting the sea ice distribution. Watch the video to see the evolution of this year's Antarctic sea ice cover, from its austral summertime minimum to its wintertime maximum.
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This visualization created from satellite observations shows Antarctic sea ice change from Feb. 20 to Oct. 6, 2015.
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This image shows Antarctica’s sea ice on Feb. 20, the date of the summertime minimum.
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This year's Antarctic sea ice maximum extent (shown above) was reached on Oct. 6, and covered 7.27 million square miles.
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The current Antarctic sea ice maximum extent is shown in comparison to the historical average from 1981-2010 (red line).
 

Related Story

Maximum Antarctic Sea Ice 2015

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

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

Visualizer/Animator:
Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)

Scientists:
Walt Meier (NASA/GSFC)
Josefino Comiso (NASA/GSFC)
Robert Gersten (Wyle Information Systems)

Project Support:
Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Leann Johnson (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
Joycelyn Thomson Jones (NASA/GSFC)
Eric Sokolowsky (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)

Lead Writer:
Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia (Telophase)

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

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12032

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Earth