As Arctic sea ice extent shrinks each year, ships are cruising farther north.
Published Apr 12, 2018Image of the Day Water Human Presence Snow and Ice Remote Sensing
While pack ice gets jostled by winds and currents in the open ocean, fast ice usually clings to land masses in shallow areas.
Published May 21, 2013
Ice cover in the Sea of Okhotsk and Barents Sea are below normal, while other areas are closer to the average. But the overall trend of shrinking sea ice continues.
Published Apr 10, 2014
A new NASA analysis has quantified for the first time the amount of “multi-year” ice that is being lost from the Arctic Ocean due to melting as opposed to export.
Published Nov 10, 2010
Taken from a low-flying airplane on March 26, 2011, these detailed photos of Arctic sea ice show the richly varied texture in the ice floe.
Published Apr 1, 2011
Half-frozen, half-thawed, the Taz River was in transition when Landsat 8 acquired this series of images in June 2013.
Published Jul 20, 2013
As temperatures rise in summer, turquoise splotches of color begin to speckle the surfaces of Arctic ice.
Published Aug 2, 2014
Summer is a dynamic time for ice in Arctic waters—melting, drifting, and even forming occasionally.
Published Aug 2, 2015
Satellites and scientists capture the Mackenzie River in the act of warming the ocean and breaking up ice in the Beaufort Sea.
Published Mar 6, 2014
Meltwater accumulates in the rocky terrain near the northeastern coast.
Published May 31, 2012
Thick ice that used to last through multiple summers has been in steep decline for three decades.
Published Mar 1, 2012
Arctic sea ice has been retreating the fastest in the Beaufort Sea.
Published Oct 18, 2017
In the Arctic, sea ice extent fluctuates with the seasons. It reaches its peak extent in March, near the end of Northern Hemisphere winter, and its minimum extent in September, at the end of the summer thaw. In September 2007, Arctic sea ice extent was the smallest area on record since satellites began collecting measurements about 30 years ago.
Published Mar 25, 2008
This pair of maps shows how the sea ice covering the Arctic at winter maximum in 2009 is younger than it was in the past.
Published Apr 10, 2009
Ice that originated in the Arctic Ocean drifts hundreds of miles south, pulled along and shaped by the East Greenland Current.
Published Jul 21, 2020
In 1984, there were 1.86 million square kilometers of old ice spread across the Arctic at its yearly minimum extent. In September 2016, there were only 110,000 square kilometers of old ice left.
Published Nov 4, 2016
Sea ice naturally grows and melts each year, but the process has been more extreme in recent years.
Published May 3, 2011
