Antarctic Sea Ice Minimum 2024

  • Released Wednesday, February 28, 2024
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On February 20th, 2024, Antarctic sea ice officially reached its minimum extent for the year. This cycle of growth and melting occurs every year, with the ice reaching its smallest size during the southern hemisphere's summer.

This year's melt season concluded with a sea ice area of 768,000 square miles (1.99 million square kilometers) compared to the average minimum observed during the satellite era (1981-2010). That is slightly larger than the state of Texas. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, this marks the second-lowest sea ice extent recorded by satellites, reflecting a trend of declining coverage over time.

The extent of sea ice is critical for polar ecosystems and has far-reaching implications for Earth's climate and weather patterns.

NSIDC Press Release

NSIDC Analysis

SVS Data Visualzation in Video

This is the horizontal version of video for YouTube.

Music credit: "Aron Wright [ PRS ] and Florian Moenks [ GEMA ]" from Universal Production Music

This video can be freely shared and downloaded. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, some individual imagery provided by Pond5.com is obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Complete transcript available.

This is the vertical version for social media.

Music credit: "Aron Wright [ PRS ] and Florian Moenks [ GEMA ]" from Universal Production Music

This video can be freely shared and downloaded. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, some individual imagery provided by Pond5.com is obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Complete transcript available.

Complete transcript available.

Credits

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

This page was originally published on Wednesday, February 28, 2024.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 4:42 PM EST.

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