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Sea ice melt is not a significant contributor to sea level rise, but its contribution is not nothing, either. Sea ice is composed mostly of fresh water, which is less dense than salty ocean water. Consequently, sea ice melt produces water that takes up more volume than an equivalent weight of salt water, although the difference is minimal.

NSIDC expertise has contributed to the enhancement of Xarray, a popular open-source tool used for data analysis and visualization. DataTree has been integrated into Xarray.

Antarctic sea ice has likely reached its minimum extent for the year, at 1.98 million square kilometers (764,000 million square miles) on March 1, 2025, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. The 2025 minimum is effectively tied with 2022 and 2024 for second lowest in the 47-year satellite record. It is 190,000 square kilometers (73,000 square miles) above the record low, set in 2023. The last four minimums have been the lowest on record.

On March 1, Antarctic sea ice likely reached its minimum extent of 1.98 million square kilometers (764,000 square miles), tying for second lowest extent with 2022 and 2024 in the 47-year satellite record. This is the fourth consecutive year that Antarctic sea ice has reached a minimum below 2.0 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles).

Snow-covered area in February across the western United States was 13 percent below average, at 822,000 square kilometers (317,000 square miles) of snow cover, ranking sixteenth highest in the 25-year satellite record (Table 1). Snow-covered area for February was about half of the area of the record high year, 2023, and 264,000 square kilometers (102,000 square miles) more than February 2003, the lowest year on record.

Arctic sea ice growth was slow in February, leaving extent at record-low levels for the end of the month. In the Antarctic, the annual minimum in extent is imminent, and near a record low.