{"id":120,"date":"2023-03-14T05:58:48","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T05:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/2023\/03\/14\/arctic-sea-ice-minimum-ties-tenth-lowest\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T00:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T22:54:08","slug":"arctic-sea-ice-minimum-ties-tenth-lowest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/2023\/03\/14\/arctic-sea-ice-minimum-ties-tenth-lowest\/","title":{"rendered":"Arctic sea ice minimum ties for tenth lowest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On September 18, Arctic sea ice\u00a0likely reached its annual minimum extent of\u00a04.67 million square kilometers (1.80 million square miles). The 2022 minimum is\u00a0tied for tenth lowest in the nearly 44-year satellite record, with 2018 and 2017. The last 16 years, from 2007 to 2022, are the lowest 16 sea ice extents in the satellite record.<\/p>\n

In the Antarctic, sea ice extent\u00a0has\u00a0hit record lows through most of the\u00a0growth season.\u00a0Starting in early August, sea ice\u00a0began\u00a0expanding rapidly, exemplifying the strong degree of variability in Southern Hemisphere sea ice. As such it is too early to assume that the maximum has been reached as storms may still expand or compact the extended ice edge. The maximum for Antarctic sea ice typically occurs in late September or early October.<\/p>\n

Please note that this is a preliminary announcement. Changing winds or late-season melt could still reduce the Arctic ice extent, as happened in 2005 and 2010. NSIDC scientists will release a full analysis of the Arctic melt season, and discuss the Antarctic winter sea ice growth, in early October.<\/i><\/p>\n

Overview of conditions<\/h2>\n
\"Arctic<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 1. Arctic sea ice extent for September 18, 2022, was\u00a04.67 million square kilometers (1.80 million square miles). The orange line shows the 1981 to 2010 average extent for that day.\u00a0Sea Ice Index<\/a>\u00a0data.\u00a0About the data<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
\nHigh-resolution image<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On September 18,\u00a0sea ice reached its annual minimum extent of 4.67 million square kilometers (1.80 million square miles) (Figure 1), tying for tenth lowest with 2018 and 2017. In response to the setting sun and falling temperatures, ice extent has begun expanding and will continue through autumn and winter. However, a shift in wind patterns or a period of late season melt could still push the ice extent lower.<\/p>\n

The minimum extent was reached four days later than the 1981 to 2010 median minimum date of September 14. The\u00a0interquartile range of minimum dates is September 11 to September 19.<\/p>\n

Conditions in context<\/h2>\n
\"Arctic<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 2. The graph above shows Arctic sea ice extent on September 18, 2022, along with several other recent years and the record minimum set in 2012.\u00a02022 is shown in blue, 2021 in green, 2020 in orange, 2019 in brown, 2018 in magenta, and 2012 in dashed brown. The 1981 to 2010 median is in dark gray. The gray areas around the median line show the interquartile and interdecile ranges of the data. Sea Ice Index<\/a> data.<\/p>\n

Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
\nHigh-resolution image<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This year\u2019s minimum set on September 18 was\u00a01.28 million square kilometers (494,000 square miles) above the satellite-era record minimum extent of 3.39 million square kilometers (1.31 million square miles), which occurred on September 17, 2012 (Figure 2). It is also\u00a01.55 million square kilometers (598,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average minimum extent, which is equivalent to\u00a0twice the size of Texas.<\/p>\n

In the 44-year-satellite record,\u00a016 of the lowest minimums have all occurred in the last\u00a016 years.<\/p>\n

The overall, downward trend in the minimum extent from 1979 to 2022 is 12.6 percent per decade relative to the 1981 to 2010 average. The loss of sea ice is about 78,500 square kilometers (30,300 square miles) per year, equivalent to losing the size of the state of South Carolina or the country of Austria annually.<\/p>\n

Sixteen\u00a0lowest minimum Arctic sea ice extents (satellite record, 1979 to present)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Table 1.\u00a0<\/strong>Sixteen\u00a0lowest minimum Arctic sea ice extents (satellite record, 1979 to present)<\/caption>\n
RANK<\/th>\nYEAR<\/th>\nMINIMUM ICE EXTENT<\/th>\nDATE<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
IN MILLIONS OF SQUARE KILOMETERS<\/th>\nIN MILLIONS OF SQUARE MILES<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\n2012<\/td>\n3.39<\/td>\n1.31<\/td>\nSept. 17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\n2020<\/td>\n3.82<\/td>\n1.47<\/td>\nSept. 16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\n2007
\n2016
\n2019<\/td>\n		4.16
\n4.17
\n4.19<\/td>\n		1.61
\n1.61
\n1.62<\/td>\n		Sept. 18
\nSept. 10
\nSept. 18<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\n2011<\/td>\n4.34<\/td>\n1.68<\/td>\nSept. 11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\n2015<\/td>\n4.43<\/td>\n1.71<\/td>\nSept. 9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\n2008
\n2010<\/td>\n		4.59
\n4.62<\/td>\n		1.77
\n1.78<\/td>\n		Sept. 19
\nSept. 21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\n2018
\n2017
\n2022<\/td>\n		4.66
\n4.67
\n4.67<\/td>\n		1.80
\n1.80
\n1.80<\/td>\n		Sept. 23
\nSept. 13
\nSept. 18<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\n2021<\/td>\n4.77<\/td>\n1.84<\/td>\nSept. 16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\n2014
\n2013<\/td>\n		5.03
\n5.05<\/td>\n		1.94
\n1.95<\/td>\n		Sept. 17
\nSept. 13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16<\/td>\n2009<\/td>\n5.12<\/td>\n1.98<\/td>\nSept. 13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Values within 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) are considered tied. The\u00a02021 value has changed from\u00a04.72 to 4.77 million square kilometers (1.84\u00a0million square miles)\u00a0when final analysis data updated near-real-time data.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Further reading<\/h2>\n

NASA visualization<\/a>\u00a0of 2022 Arctic sea ice minimum extent<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 18, Arctic sea ice\u00a0likely reached its annual minimum extent of\u00a04.67 million square kilometers (1.80 million square miles).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3243,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/3243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}