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These maps show the monthly mean sea ice extents. These are defined as the extent of the monthly mean sea ice concentration which exceeds 30% as this limit is used by OSI SAF to distinguish open water and open ice (reference). The maps are additionally overlayed with the corresponding multi-year montly mean percentiles of the period 1979-2021.
Click here to change between the full period and the wmo standard climate period.
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| What is ice concentration? Ice concentration is defined as the fraction of the sea surface which is covered by ice, where 100% corresponds to a complete ice cover and 0% corresponds to open waters. These maps are based on data from microwave satelites during the period from 1979 to 2022, which have been re-processed by the European project EUMETSAT OSI SAF into two data sets: a CDR from 1979 to 2020 and an ICDR from 2021 to 2022 (i.e. data set OSI-450-a and OSI-430-a). The sea ice typically reaches its maximum extent during March, extending approximately 14-16 million square kilometers, and its minimum extent by the end of september, which in the 1980's was approximately 7 million square kilometers compared to today's 3-5 million square kilometers. |
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Arctic |
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In order to document OSI-SAF's impact and enable ongoing support of OSI-SAF, you are obligated to acknowledge OSI-SAF in your work. Therefore, if you wish to use any material presented here please read this file.
This page is a result of the sea ice concentration climatology. To download a summary data set climatology click here.
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