Every year, sea ice fluctuates through the seasons, growing in the winter and shrinking in the summer. This year, Arctic sea ice reached its annual maximum March 13, 2019. It wasn’t a record low, but it continued a trend of declining sea ice maximums and minimums. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Katy Mersmann
Working from a combination of satellite records and declassified submarine sonar data, NASA scientists have constructed a 60-year record of Arctic sea ice thickness. Right now, Arctic sea ice is the youngest and thinnest its been since we started keeping records. More than 70 percent of Arctic sea ice is now seasonal, which means it grows in the winter and melts in the summer, but doesn’t last from year to year. This seasonal ice melts faster and breaks up easier, making it much more susceptible to wind and atmospheric conditions.
Music: Galore by Lee Groves [PRS], Peter George Marett [PRS]
This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13089 Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Katy Mersmann
