Summer and Winter in the Arctic
Since the late 1970s, NASA has used satellites to monitor the sea ice in the Arctic. This data tells us about sea ice extent, which is a measure of the area of ocean that is covered by at least some ice. Sea ice minimum is the smallest ice extent for the year, which usually happens in September in the Arctic, at the end of the summer melt season. Sea ice maximum is the greatest extent of the year, which generally occurs in March in the Arctic, at the end of the winter cold season.
Watch this animation to see how Arctic sea ice melts over time from February to September 2015.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Now, click Visualize It to trace around the ice extent covering the Arctic Ocean. Note that each image captures the rotation of Earth at slightly different vantage points and therefore presents a slightly different visual layout of the Arctic region.
Take Notes
Compare your outlines of the minimum and maximum sea ice extent. What is causing the difference in the extent of Arctic sea ice?
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