Did you know that sea ice has an age? In this dataset, colors show the age of sea ice floating in the Arctic Ocean. The darkest blue areas on the map show seasonal or first-year ice, which formed during the most recent winter. White areas show where ice is more than four years old. Since the late 1900s, Arctic sea ice has thinned, and less sea ice has persisted in the Arctic over multiple melt seasons. The trend toward younger, thinner sea ice over time reflects warming temperatures in the Arcti

A record low sea ice maximum This motion graphic shows the Arctic sea ice freeze cycle from the last summertime minimum extent to March 24, when it reached its wintertime maximum extent at 14.52 million square kilometres—the lowest winter maximum ever recorded. There is a significant downward trend related to the warming atmosphere and oceans. Since 1979, 1,605,792 square kilometres of winter sea ice cover have disappeared, an area equivalent to Alberta and British Columbia combined! For more in