2022 Arctic summer sea ice tied for 10th-lowest on record

In accordance with satellite observations, Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimal extent on Sept. 18, 2022. The ice cowl shrank to an space of 4.67 million sq. kilometers (1.80 million sq. miles) this yr, roughly 1.55 million sq. kilometers (598,000 sq. miles) under the 1981-2010 common minimal of 6.22 million sq. kilometers (2.40 million sq. miles).

Summer time ice extent in and across the Arctic Ocean has declined considerably since satellites started measuring it constantly in 1978. The previous 16 years (2007 to 2022) have been the bottom 16 minimal extents, with 2022 tying 2017 and 2018 for Tenth-lowest in 44 years of observations. The satellite report is maintained by the Nationwide Snow and Ice Information Heart (NSIDC), which hosts one in every of NASA’s Distributed Lively Archive Facilities.

“This yr marks a continuation of the much-reduced sea ice cowl because the Nineteen Eighties,” mentioned Walt Meier, a sea ice researcher on the Nationwide Snow and Ice Information Heart. “That’s not one thing that’s random variations or likelihood. It represents a fundamental change within the ice cover in response to warming temperatures.”

Annually, Arctic sea ice melts by means of the hotter spring and summer time months and often reaches its minimal extent in September. As cooler climate and winter darkness units in, the ice will develop once more and attain its most extent round March.

Sea ice extent is outlined because the total space through which ice focus is no less than 15%. This visualization, created at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland, reveals fluctuations in Arctic sea ice extent from March by means of September 2022. The map relies on information acquired by the Superior Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) instrument on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Company’s International Change Statement Mission 1st-Water “SHIZUKU” (GCOM-W1) satellite.