Approaching The 2015 Arctic Sea Ice Minimum
As the sun sets over the Arctic, the end of this year’s melt season is quickly approaching and the sea ice cover has already shrunk to the fourth lowest in the satellite record. With possibly some days of melting left, the sea ice extent could still drop to the second or third lowest on record.
Arctic sea ice, which regulates the planet’s temperature by bouncing solar energy back to space, has been on a steep decline for the last two decades. This animation shows the evolution of Arctic sea ice in 2015, from its annual maximum wintertime extent, reached on February 25, to September 6.
A print-resolution image of the Arctic sea ice on September 6, 2015.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Producer
- Sophia Roberts (USRA)
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Animator
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
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Writer
- Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia (Telophase)
Release date
This page was originally published on Friday, September 11, 2015.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:49 PM EDT.
Sources
- ID: 4684
Visualization - ID: 4355
Visualization