Arctic sea ice acts as an air conditioner for the planet, reflecting energy from the sun.
On September 17, the Arctic ice cover reached its minimum extent for 2014.
Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio
The northern ice cap is melting and ice coverage continued its below-average trend this year. At 1.94 million square miles (5.02 million square kilometers), it’s the sixth lowest extent of the satellite record. With warmer temperatures and thinner, less resilient ice, the Arctic ocean ice is on a downward trend. Data from NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
