Public domain video (2:05)

NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjFfcPC_4JE

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=4750&button=recent

This visualization shows the age of the Arctic sea ice between 1984 and 2019. Younger sea ice, or first-year ice, is shown in a dark shade of blue while the ice that is four years old or older is shown as white. The animation shows the seasonal variability of the ice, growing in the Arctic winter and melting in the summer. In addition, this also shows the changes from year to year.

One significant change in the Arctic region in recent years has been the rapid decline in perennial sea ice. Perennial sea ice, also known as multi-year ice, is the portion of the sea ice that survives the summer melt season. Perennial ice may have a life-span of nine years or more and represents the thickest component of the sea ice; perennial ice can grow up to four meters thick. By contrast, first year ice that grows during a single winter is generally at most two meters thick.

Note that data for the sea ice age is not available along the coastlines. The region where data is not available is shown in a dark lavender color.

Another version of this visualization includes a graph that quantifies the area covered by sea ice 4 or more years old in millions of square kilometers. See https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4750.

Visualizers: Cindy Starr (lead), Horace Mitchell