This chart tracks the Arctic Daily Sea Ice Extent, with September 19, 2023, the most likely yearly minimum degree for this year, highlighted.
Sea Ice Decline in 2023.
In Between March and September 2023, the ice cover in the Arctic avoided a peak location of 5.64 million square miles (14.62 million square kilometers) to 1.63 million square miles (4.23 million square kilometers). Thats roughly 770,000 square miles (1.99 million square kilometers) below the 1981– 2010 typical minimum of 2.4 million square miles (6.22 million square kilometers). The amount of sea ice lost was enough to cover the whole continental United States.
Changing Patterns in the Arctic
This year in the Arctic, researchers saw especially low levels of ice in the Northwest Passage. “It is more open there than it used to be,” said Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NSIDC. “There also appears to be a lot more loose, lower concentration ice– even toward the North Pole– and locations that used to be pretty compact, strong sheets of ice through the summertime. Thats been taking place more often in the last few years.”
Meier said the changes are a fundamental, decades-long response to warming temperature levels. Since the start of the satellite record for ice in 1979, sea ice has actually not just been decreasing in the Arctic, but also getting younger. Previously starts to spring melting and ever-later starts to autumn freeze-up are resulting in longer melting seasons. Research study has actually revealed that, balanced across the whole Arctic Ocean, freeze-up is occurring about a week later per years, or one month behind in 1979.
Arctic sea ice most likely reached its annual minimum extent on September 19, 2023, making it the sixth-lowest year in the satellite record, according to scientists at NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Antarctic sea ice reached its most affordable optimum degree on record on September 10 at a time when the ice cover need to have been growing at a much faster rate during the darkest and coldest months. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio
Monitoring Sea Ice Thickness and Long-term Changes
Nathan Kurtz, laboratory chief of NASAs Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory at the firms Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said that as the Arctic warms about 4 times faster than the rest of the world, the ice is likewise growing thinner. “Thickness at the end of the development season mostly determines the survivability of sea ice. New research study is utilizing satellites like NASAs ICESat-2 (Cloud, land and ice Elevation Satellite-2) to keep an eye on how thick the ice is year-round.”
Kurtz said that long-lasting measurements of sea ice are crucial to studying whats happening in real-time at the poles. “At NASA were interested in taking cutting-edge measurements, but were likewise trying to link them to the historical record to much better comprehend whats driving a few of these changes that were seeing.”
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
They track sea ice level, which is defined as the total area of the ocean in which the ice cover fraction is at least 15%. Considering that the start of the satellite record for ice in 1979, sea ice has not only been declining in the Arctic, however also getting younger. Arctic sea ice most likely reached its yearly minimum extent on September 19, 2023, making it the sixth-lowest year in the satellite record, according to scientists at NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Antarctic sea ice reached its most affordable maximum extent on record on September 10 at a time when the ice cover should have been growing at a much faster rate during the darkest and coldest months. New research is using satellites like NASAs ICESat-2 (Land, ice and cloud Elevation Satellite-2) to monitor how thick the ice is year-round.”
This map, based on satellite information, reveals the sea ice concentration on September 19, 2023. This is likely the annual minimum degree for this year.
Satellite information reveals that Arctic sea ice most likely reached its annual minimum degree on September 19, 2023.
Arctic sea ice most likely reached its annual minimum degree on September 19, 2023, making it the sixth-lowest year in the satellite record, according to researchers at NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
Significance and Measurement of Sea Ice
They track sea ice extent, which is specified as the overall area of the ocean in which the ice cover portion is at least 15%. The map at the top of this page reveals the sea ice degree on September 19, 2023
