On September 15-16, 2007, at the time of the Arctic sea ice minimum, relatively cloud-free skies enabled the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra to observe much of the sea ice and open ocean throughout the Arctic. Overlaid onto the image are sea ice minima from 2007 (medium blue), the previous record low from 2005 (light blue), and the long-term average from 1979-2000 (gray). The 2007 minimum, which correlates closely with the ice visible through clouds in this image, fell substantially below previous records. Image by Terry Haran, National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, using NASA MODIS data.
This image is also available as a PNG file (58.1 MB) at 500-meter resolution.