Sea Ice Today
Analyses and daily images of sea ice conditions
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Antarctica
Northern Hemisphere
Arctic
While global air temperatures were at or near record highs for June, July, and August, the summer was cool and stormy over the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic sea ice minimum extent tied for tenth lowest on the satellite record with 2008, 2010, and 2025, with a loose ice pack on the Atlantic side extending to the pole. However, the post-minimum freeze up has been rapid. Antarctic sea ice extent, which reached its maximum on September 14, dropped sharply through September, hitting record low daily extents since October 2.
Arctic
On September 12, Arctic sea ice likely reached its annual minimum extent of 4.60 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles). The 2026 minimum shares the tenth lowest spot in the nearly 48-year satellite record with 2008, 2010, and 2025. The last 20 years, from 2007 to 2026, are the lowest 20 sea ice extents in the satellite record. In the Antarctic, sea ice extent most likely reached its maximum extent on September 14 at 17.59 million square kilometers (6.79 million square miles). If this maximum date holds, this will be the third lowest Antarctic sea ice maximum on record.
Northern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
Greetings, readers! Our monthly sea ice analyses are returning just in time for the September equinox. In the Arctic, the sea ice extent this summer was tracking 2012 levels until August. While Siberia and the Canadian Archipelago experienced a very warm summer, the high-latitude Arctic Ocean was relatively cool. In the Antarctic, sea ice underwent an unusually large mid-winter decline over a week in August.
Antarctica
Northern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
Arctic
With the generous support of the Climate Science and Communication Fund from Surge Climate Talent, NSIDC’s Ice Sheets and Sea Ice News and Analysis (ISSINA) is able to start up monthly science assessments for the Sea Ice Today site.
Beginning October 15, 2025, NSIDC’s Sea Ice Today services will be reduced because of non-renewed funding.
Antarctica
Southern Hemisphere
On September 17, Antarctic sea ice likely reached its annual maximum extent of 17.81 million square kilometers (6.88 million square miles). The 2025 maximum is the third lowest in the 47-year satellite record above 2023 and 2024.
Northern Hemisphere
Arctic
On September 10, Arctic sea ice likely reached its annual minimum extent of 4.60 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles). The 2025 minimum shares the tenth lowest spot in the nearly 47-year satellite record with 2008 and 2010.
Northern Hemisphere
Arctic
In August, sea ice rapidly melted and compacted north of Alaska in the Beaufort Sea, initiated by a warm pulse of air from east Siberia that was sustained by persistent winds from the southwest. However, the overall pace of decline for the month was near average. Antarctic sea ice climbed in August but remained well below average, ending at third lowest extent.
Antarctica
Arctic
At the end of July 2025, daily sea ice extent in both hemispheres ranked third lowest in the 47-year satellite record. For most of the month, Arctic sea ice extent tracked close to levels recorded for 2012, the record-low-September year.
Antarctica
Arctic
Arctic sea ice extent tracked at near-record low levels through much of June, hitting daily record low levels from June 20 to 26. Antarctic sea ice averaged third lowest for the month of June. There have been unrecoverable gaps in delivered sea ice data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMI/S). Since the the SSMIS data feed will end July 31, the team will be switching to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR2) passive microwave sensor as the primary data source.
Antarctica
Northern Hemisphere
Arctic
May sea ice extent in the Arctic averaged 12.56 million square kilometers (4.85 million square miles), tying with 2004 for seventh lowest on the 47-year satellite record. Antarctic sea ice extent for May was fifth lowest in the satellite record, but below average growth through the month resulted in the daily ice extent moving away from the 1981 to 2010 average.
Antarctica
Arctic
Arctic sea ice extent through most of April changed very little. Only at the end of the month did extent begin to decline. Because the month started with unusually low extent, however, the average extent for April ended up tied for ninth lowest in the satellite record. The situation in the Antarctic remained fickle. Extent at the end of the month was tracking near the levels recorded for 2024, but well above the record low in 2023.
Antarctica
Arctic
Arctic sea ice extent for March set a record low in the 47-year satellite data record. Extent was below average everywhere except the East Greenland Sea.
Northern Hemisphere
Arctic
Arctic sea ice extent appears to have reached its annual maximum on March 22, 2025. This is the lowest maximum in the 47-year satellite record, with previous low maximums occurring in 2017, 2018, 2016, and 2015.
Antarctica
Southern Hemisphere
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).
Antarctica
Arctic
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.
Antarctica
Arctic
Arctic daily sea ice extent continued to hover near record daily lows in January, with the ice edge well northward of its long-term average position in most areas. In contrast to the cold conditions dominating the contiguous United States, much of the Arctic experienced above-average January temperatures. In the Antarctic, daily sea ice extent fell below the long-term average after a brief period of above-average daily extents, ending the month just above the lowest 25 percent of ice extents for the day.
Antarctica
Arctic
Air temperatures in December 2024 were above average over the entire Arctic Ocean, continuing the pattern set in November. Average Arctic sea ice extent for December was the lowest in the satellite record, in considerable part due to delayed ice growth in Hudson Bay and low extent in the northern Barents Sea. Antarctic sea ice has declined at a slower-than-normal pace since mid-November, erasing the record and near-record low extents of October and November and finishing the year very close to the 1981 to 2010 average.
Antarctica
Arctic
Following the pattern seen in recent years, autumn freeze up has been slow in the Arctic, reflecting the growing heat gain in the ocean mixed layer during summer and higher air temperatures. In the Antarctic, the rate of spring ice loss slowed somewhat during November, ending the month above the extreme low levels of 2016 and 2023.
Antarctica
Arctic
As darkness extends southward across the Arctic, sea ice has advanced to much of the Russian shoreline, but growth has been particularly slow in the Barents and Kara Seas. In the Antarctic, with the onset of spring, the pace of seasonal sea ice loss has increased.