Arctic Sea Ice Reaches 2019 Minimum Extent

Released Monday, September 23, 2019

ID: 13309

- Produced by:
- Katie Jepson
- Visualizations by:
- Trent L. Schindler,
- Cindy Starr,
- and Bailee DesRocher
- Written by:
- Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia

Music: Hiraeth by Anthony Edwin Phillips [PRS], James Edward Collins

Arctic sea ice likely reached its 2019 minimum extent of 1.60 million square miles (4.15 million square kilometers) on Sept. 18, tied for second lowest summertime extent in the satellite record, according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The Arctic sea ice cap is an expanse of frozen seawater floating on top of the Arctic Ocean and neighboring seas. Every year, it expands and thickens during the fall and winter and grows smaller and thinner during the spring and summer. But in the past decades, increasing temperatures have caused marked decreases in the Arctic sea ice extents in all seasons, with particularly rapid reductions in the minimum end-of-summer ice extent. The shrinking of the Arctic sea ice cover can ultimately affect local ecosystems, global weather patterns, and the circulation of the oceans.

Earth

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Producer
- Katie Jepson (USRA)
Technical support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Scientists
- Nathan T. Kurtz (NASA/GSFC)
- Walt Meier (NASA/GSFC)
Visualizers
- Trent L. Schindler (USRA)
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
Animator
- Bailee DesRocher (USRA)
Narrator
- LK Ward (USRA)
Writer
- Maria-Jose Vinas Garcia (Telophase)
Videographers
- Kate Ramsayer (Telophase)
- Jefferson Beck (USRA)
- John Caldwell (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.)