Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Volumes 1979-2013

Published on YouTube Nov 21, 2013: This is an animated visualization of the startling decline of Arctic Sea Ice, showing the minimum volume reached every September since 1979, set on a map of New York with a 10km grid to give an idea of scale. It is clear that the trend of Arctic sea ice decline indicates that it’ll be ice-free for an increasingly large part of the year, with consequences for the climate.

The rate of ice loss in the Arctic is staggering. Since 1979, the volume of Summer Arctic sea ice has declined by more than 80% and accelerating faster than scientists believed it would, or even could melt.

About the data: Sea Ice Volume is calculated using the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS, Zhang and Rothrock, 2003) developed at APL/PSC.
Source data for this graph is available from http://psc.apl.washington.edu/wordpress/research/projects/arctic-sea-ice-volume-anomaly/

More information:
The image first appeared in still form on Think Progress, and I decided to try to bring it to life over the following weeks: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/02/14/1594211/death-spiral-bombshell-cryosat-2-confirms-arctic-sea-ice-volume-has-collapsed/

An earlier video also featured on BBC’s Newsnight last year: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19496674