![](http://www.alamy.com/thumbs/6/4C8B0ABB-9790-4114-AB65-0EAC2F946565/2ADDJ5C.jpg)
Arctic ice minimum extent. Satellite image showing the Arctic polar ice cap at its annual minimum extent on 23rd September 2018. The Arctic sea ice (w
Arctic ice minimum extent. Satellite image showing the Arctic polar ice cap at its annual minimum extent on 23rd September 2018. The Arctic sea ice (white, centre) reaches a minimum in September, at the end of the Arctic summer. This minimal ice area is called the perennial ice cover. The perennial ice has been steadily decreasing since satellites began observing it in 1979, at a rate of about 10 percent per decade. The sea ice here covers million square kilometres. This decrease is attributed to global warming. Data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) instrument aboard the Global Change Observation Mission 1st-Water (GCOM-W1).
Size: 5655px × 3181px
Photo credit: © NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, 1st-water, 2, 2010s, 2018, 21st, 23, advanced, amsr2, annual, arctic, cap, century, change, circle, climate, climatological, climatology, cover, decline, declined, declining, disappearing, earth, environment, environmental, extent, gcom-w1, geographical, geography, global, ice, image, losing, loss, melting, microwave, minimum, mission, observation, ocean, passage, perennial, polar, radiometer, recede, receded, receding, region, retreat, retreated, retreating, satellite, scanning, sea, september, shrinking, space, strait, vanishing, warming, yearly