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Arctic melt season puts focus on sea ice forecasts

August 21, 2020

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The German icebreaker Polarstern travels through Arctic sea ice in August 2020 as melt ponds are forming. The Polarstern has been in the Arctic Ocean since September 2019, supporting the international MOSAiC mission to better understand the region’s climate system and its influence on the rest of the world.

Arctic sea ice reached its annual high on March 5

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Arctic Ocean sea ice hit its annual peak for this year on March 5, 2020: This color-coded map shows Arctic sea ice concentration on March 5, 2020. Darkest blue indicates open water or ice concentration less than 15 percent. Shades of lighter blue to white indicate 15–100 percent ice cover. The gold line shows the median ice extent for this date over 1981–2010, an area of 6.04 million square miles (15.64 million square kilometers). Median falls “in the middle” because half of the years in the 1981–2010 reference period had larger extents, and half had smaller extents.

Anticipating more activity in the Arctic, NOAA invests in research to advance sea ice forecasting

January 31, 2020

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Responding to oil spills in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean would pose unique challenges. For example, floating booms often used to concentrate oil for burning — as in this field experiment in the Barents Sea — must be strong enough to handle increased drag from ice floes. (Undated image.)

Antarctic sea ice shows little trend, lots of variability

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Young, thin ice floats in the Amundsen Sea on October 16, 2009.

Arctic Report Card tracks region’s environmental changes

December 11, 2018

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Eyeing the Arctic: The southern Greenland town of Narsaq. Photo taken during a NASA Operation IceBridge flight April 26, 2018. Learn more this project at nasa.gov/icebridge.

Melting Antarctic sea ice threatens minke whales

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Minke whale.

2018 Arctic sea ice maximum was the second smallest on record

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Aerial view of Arctic sea ice.

In a warming Arctic, rising ship traffic demands better sea ice forecasts

February 16, 2018

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The Coast Guard Cutter Healy cutting a path through ice to allow the Russian oil tanker to make a fuel delivery to Nome, Alaska in December 2012. I

2017 Arctic sea ice minimum comes in at eighth smallest on record

September 21, 2017

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Sea ice floes north of Greenland on July 24, 2017.

Top leaders to discuss critical impacts of an ice-diminishing Arctic on naval and maritime operations

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Welcome to noaa.gov

Earth had 2nd warmest February, season and year to date on record

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climate analyses and statistics

A collage of typical climate and weather-related events: heatwaves, drought, hurricanes, wildfires and changes in sea ice coverage.

New research shows ocean acidification is spreading rapidly in the Arctic

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ocean acidification

University of Delaware researcher Baoshan Chen (pictured left) takes water samples from a melting pond on ice in the northern Arctic Ocean basin with a Chinese collaborator.

Unprecedented Arctic weather has scientists on edge

February 17, 2017

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This image, captured from the NASA DC-8 research aircraft on Jan. 29, 2017, shows unconsolidated sea ice off the coast of Barrow AK. Scientists monitoring the Arctic say this year has set records for minimum sea-ice extent during winter.

Arctic sea ice ties for second lowest in 2016

September 15, 2016

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This map shows Arctic sea ice concentration on the date of the 2016 minimum extent, September 10, 2016. This is a NOAA Climate.gov image based on NOAA and NASA satellite data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Study: Sea ice loss likely no factor in cold Northern Hemisphere winters

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A frozen Chicago lakefront. Even as the Arctic warms, cities in the Northern Hemisphere have experienced outbreaks of extremely cold weather during the last several winters.

Arctic set for record-breaking melt this summer

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The Barrow Observatory in Alaska, May 18, 2016. Intense early-season heat caused the earliest snowmelt date in 73 years of record-keeping. Barrow is the northernmost point in the United States.