Operation IceBridge - Greenland Sea Ice

  • Released Monday, December 9, 2019

Arctic sea ice occupies an ocean basin mostly enclosed by land. Because there is no landmass at the North Pole, sea ice extends all the way to the pole, making the ice subject to the most extreme oscillations between wintertime darkness and summertime sunlight. Likewise, because the ocean basin is surrounded by land, ice has less freedom of movement to drift into lower latitudes and melt.

Arctic sea ice generally reaches its maximum extent each March and its minimum extent each September.





Credits

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

Release date

This page was originally published on Monday, December 9, 2019.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:45 PM EDT.


Missions

This page is related to the following missions: