Sea-ice trends
The sea-ice cover has been measured on the basis of satellite data for more than 40 years. As a rule, it is presented as the sea-ice extent, as the area of sea ice in square kilometres (sea-ice area), or as the sea-ice concentration.
Here you’ll find time series of the monthly mean sea-ice extent for January to December since 1979, based on satellite data on the Arctic and Antarctic. In addition, you can view deviations between the monthly mean sea-ice extent and the long-term mean for 1981 – 2010 (referred to as “anomalies”) for January to December.
You can also download the graphics you’ve selected and, with proper citation, use them elsewhere. All graphics are based on quality-controlled data.
How to cite our maps:
Please include the following in the acknowledgments: Sea-ice data from DATE to DATE from www.meereisportal.de (funding: REKLIM-2013-04).
Citation style: Spreen, G.; Kaleschke, L. and Heygster, G. (2008), Sea ice remote sensing using AMSR-E 89 GHz channels J. Geophys. Res.,vol. 113, C02S03, doi:10.1029/2005JC003384.