Sea ice at the top of the planet continued to shrink and thin in 2024.
Sea ice at the top of the planet continued to shrink and thin in 2024. The maximum winter ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean is consistent with an ongoing 46-year decline.
Analysis of satellite observations has revealed that the total area of the Arctic Ocean covered in sea ice reached 6 million square miles (15.65 million square kilometers) on March 14. That’s 247,000 square miles (640,000 square kilometers) less ice than the average maximum extent between 1981 and 2010. Overall, the maximum winter ice coverage in the Arctic has shrunk by an area equivalent to the size of Alaska since 1979.
The map above shows the ice extent on March 14, the day of the annual maximum. To determine extent, scientists project satellite observations of sea ice onto a grid and then add up the total area of each cell that is at least 15 percent ice-covered. The yellow outline shows the median sea ice extent for February from 1981 to 2010. A median is the middle value; that is, half of the extents were larger than the yellow line and half were smaller.
Read more at NASA Earth Observatory
Image: NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
