The lowest Arctic sea-ice extent in the satellite record
September extent falls to approximately 3.4 million square kilometres, the lowest of the satellite era and roughly half the average of the first decades of the record. The loss of thick multi-year ice matters more than the area figure: a thinner, younger, more mobile ice pack responds differently to a summer storm than the pack that preceded it, which is part of why a single season could go so far.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- Sea Ice · natural phenomenon · Both polar oceans · not located
- Arctic Ocean · maritime region · Arctic
- Arctic Amplification · natural phenomenon · Arctic · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Sea Ice Index
A continuous, consistently processed record of sea-ice extent in both hemispheres exists from 1979, from which the Arctic September minima of 2007 (approximately 4.2 million km2) and 2012 (approximately 3.4 million km2) and the Antarctic February minima of 2022 and 2023 (the first below 2 million km2 in the record, and lower again the following year) are drawn. V55 VERIFICATION BASIS: nsidc.org was probed during production and refused by the network egress proxy, and the WebSearch budget was exhausted. EVERY NUMERIC VALUE IN THIS RECORD IS APPROXIMATE AND UNCHECKED, given to one or two significant figures for that reason. A curator must replace them with values read from the Sea Ice Index before publication.
National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), University of Colorado Boulder · continuously updated; record begins 1979 · Partly verified
NSIDC Sea Ice Index, https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index - daily and monthly Arctic and Antarctic sea-ice extent and concentration from passive-microwave satellite observations
Recorded on Sea Ice
- The continuous satellite sea-ice record begins
- A long-term decline in krill density is linked to winter sea ice
- The Arctic summer minimum drops far below anything previously observed
- The lowest Arctic sea-ice extent in the satellite record
- The Halley Bay emperor colony fails and does not recover
- Seven Arctic states pause participation in the Arctic Council
- The emperor penguin is listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one · 2023-02
- The emperor penguin is listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act · 2022-10-25
- Seven Arctic states pause participation in the Arctic Council · 2022-03-03
- The Halley Bay emperor colony fails and does not recover · 2016 onward
- The Arctic summer minimum drops far below anything previously observed · 2007-09
- A long-term decline in krill density is linked to winter sea ice · 2004
- The continuous satellite sea-ice record begins · 1979