• Notice: Recent delivery from the US Navy of the SSMIS passive microwave data that this sea ice product uses has become more sporadic. The Defense Department has informed NSIDC that they will reduce the priority of processing the SSMIS data, resulting in likely daily data gaps. NSIDC will explore switching to a different sensor, the JAXA Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2). We expect to be able to continue our regular analyses after calibrating between sensors to keep the time series as consistent as possible. However, this transition will take time. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience during this transition.

  • This data set was recently downgraded to a “Basic” Level of Service. Learn more about what this means for users here. 

Sea Ice Index Daily and Monthly Image Viewer

Arctic- and Antarctic-wide changes in sea ice
Current data
Compare & Animate
Data Archive
FAQS
In this section
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Quick Links

How to use BIST
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Quick Links

How to use BIST

Compare & Animate

Use the interactive tools below to compare sea ice trends and anomalies and to animate monthly extent, concentrations, anomalies, and trends.

Compare sea ice trends

 

Compare sea ice anomalies across time

Animate monthly extent, concentrations, anomalies, and trends

 

Sea Ice
Start Year
 
Hemisphere
 
Start Month
 
Image
 
  Fixed Month Animations

Tips for using the sea ice animation tool

Use the dropdown menus to choose the year, month, hemisphere, and type of image you want to view. 

The animation controls at the bottom provide various options to allow you to animate forwards and backwards through time.

To download the image use your browser's Save function (usually a right-click menu option). It is possible to select an image that doesn't exist - either the date is out of range or the data are missing for some other reason. This results in a NO DATA image or a regular image with the caption "Insufficient Data Available".

Note: The viewer will always return the most recent Concentration Trends images regardless of the year selected.

Checking Fixed Month Animations causes the auto step to increment the year only. Otherwise, the month is incremented and then the year.