Norman and Pablo present...
Arctic Sea Ice MELTOMETER
Welcome to the MELTOMETER
Click the image to try the tool! Help us spread awareness by sharing your results with #Meltometer #ArcticMatters
New Data VISUALISATIONS
We are proud to present our Arctic Sea Ice Stripes with you, created by Arctic Basecamp. In this brand new visualisation, the light stripes represent years with more of the Arctic Ocean covered by sea ice, and darker stripes represent years with less ice and more exposed ocean. It paints a clear picture: rising temperatures mean Arctic sea ice is disappearing. The lowest annual average sea ice was recorded in 2020.
See the interactive graph and hover over each stripe HERE.
This visualisation shows data presented in a new way, as temperatures rise across the world, Arctic sea ice melts. Each point on the graph represents a year – with a trend showing that Arctic sea ice is lowest during years with the highest global temperatures.
See the interactive graph and see each year’s data HERE.
Why is SEA ICE important?
What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay there, in fact, the loss of Arctic sea ice has massive repercussions for the rest of the globe:
- Arctic sea ice loss is directly related to global CO2 emissions (Stroeve & Notz, 2018).
- Sea ice loss worsens warming. White ice cover reflects much of the sun’s energy back to space. But as ice disappears, the dark ocean is exposed, which absorbs more of the sun’s energy, and thus warms, melting more snow and ice. Estimates suggest that the loss of Arctic sea ice together with reductions in snow cover over the boreal land areas will exacerbate global warming by 25 – 40%.
- Arctic sea ice is shrinking fast. Arctic sea ice is an indicator of climate stability. Today, there is about 40% less sea ice coverage at the end of the melt season than in the 1980s. The ice area shrank by almost half the size of the entire European Union. What is left was smaller than at any time in at least 1,000 years.
- Summer sea ice in the Arctic could melt almost completely by the 2030s—roughly a decade earlier than previously projected.
- We need to reduce global emissions to save the Arctic sea ice.
We know that more people need to be aware of the importance of Arctic sea ice, no matter how far away from the Arctic they live.
For more information please visit our Arctic Sea Ice page.