Arctic Sea Ice Ties for Tenth-Lowest on File

With the tip of summer time 2025 approaching within the Northern Hemisphere, the extent of sea ice within the Arctic shrank to its annual minimal on September 10, in line with NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The complete sea ice protection was tied with 2008 for the Tenth-lowest on document at 4.60 million sq. kilometers (1.78 million sq. miles).

This map exhibits the ocean ice extent (white) on September 10 in comparison with the 1981-2010 common extent for a similar day (yellow line). Scientists calculate sea ice extent by dividing the ocean right into a grid of squares and including up the realm of people who meet a focus threshold; that’s, the sq. is not less than 15 p.c coated by ice.

The areas of ice masking the oceans on the poles fluctuate by the seasons. Ice accumulates as seawater freezes throughout colder months and melts away throughout the hotter months. But the ice by no means fairly disappears totally on the poles. In the Arctic Ocean, the realm the ice covers usually reaches its yearly minimal in September. Since scientists at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) started monitoring sea ice on the poles in 1978, sea ice extent has typically been declining as world temperatures have risen.

“While this year’s Arctic sea ice area did not set a record low, it’s consistent with the downward trend,” mentioned Nathan Kurtz, chief of the Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Arctic ice reached its lowest recorded extent in 2012. Ice scientist Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center on the University of Colorado Boulder, attributes that document low to a mixture of a warming environment and strange climate patterns. This 12 months, the annual decline in ice initially resembled the adjustments in 2012. Although the melting tapered off in early August, it wasn’t sufficient to alter the year-over-year downward pattern.

“For the past 19 years, the minimum ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean has fallen below the levels prior to 2007,” Meier mentioned. “That continues in 2025.”

NASA Earth Observatory pictures by Lauren Dauphin, utilizing knowledge from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Story by James R. Riordon/NASA’s Earth Science News Team, tailored for Earth Observatory.