The tip of the Antarctic Peninsula showed dramatic seasonal changes in late January 2008. On January 24, 2008, the fast ice looked solidly frozen. Several days later, on January 30, 2008, the ice’s new blue hue suggested something had changed.
These satellite-based maps show sea ice concentration in the Arctic and Antarctic during September 2008 and February 2009, the months of the sea ice maximums and minimums in the respective hemispheres.
On February 24, 2008—late summer in the Southern Hemisphere—the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of lingering sea ice in the Southern Ocean.
The MODIS instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this clear view of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Larsen Ice Shelf, and the sea ice covered waters around the region in October 2011.
Changing weather conditions left their mark on sea ice along the Antarctic Peninsula in late 2008 and early 2009. In mid-December 2008, melt water resting on the sea ice colored it sky blue. At the beginning of 2009, however, the sea ice appeared snowy white, and cracks had begun along the ice margin.
A spectacular view of sea ice was captured during an Operation IceBridge flight in 2014; the mission surveyed ice at both poles again in 2015, this time simultaneously.