Arctic Sea Ice Concentrations for September (Minimum)

This animation shows the Arctic sea ice September (minimum) extents from 1979-2016. Accessible from http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/sotc/sea_ice.html

Go To:

https://www.youtube.com/watch

National Snow and Ice Data Center

Notes From Our Reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials

Teaching Tips

Younger students (middle grades, lower high school) may need clarification and vocabulary support from educator.

About the Science

A time-series view of September Arctic sea ice concentration from 1979 to 2014.

Visualization animates changes in Arctic sea ice at its minimal extent (September) from 1979-2014. Part of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) State of the Cryosphere web resources.

Comments from expert scientist:

Scientific strengths:

Provides a visual representation of sea ice melt in the Arctic that allow a student to visualize and understand actual data.

Provides several associated representations and models of sea ice that allow a student to compare and contrast actual data both of min and max sea ice and in the Artic and Antarctic.

About the Pedagogy

Attractive graphic is easy to interpret even though no quantitative data is given.

Dramatic image centered on the North Pole using satellite data overlaid onto NASA's Blue Marble. Additional Arctic animation (March/maximum extent) and Antarctic extents (September/maximum and March/minimum), as well as other excellent resources on the cryosphere, are in the sidebar.

Technical Details

Excellent quality.