This image shows sea ice around the Northwest Passage as observed by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite on August 22, 2007. McClure Strait, Parry Channel, Victoria Strait, and McClintock Channel (north of Victoria Strait), all appear nearly ice-free. North of McClure Strait, an area of sea ice remains, but it is fragmented.
From the time Europeans discovered the North American continent to the mid-twentieth century, sailors searched for a northwest passage that would connect the Atlantic Ocean (and Europe) to the Pacific Ocean (and Asia). No such passage exists through the continent, but during the summer, a northwest route through the Arctic opens up.