These Arctic sea ice images represent real data captured by the AMSR-E instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite. The top image is from Mar. 7, 2011, when sea ice reached its maximum extent this year, near the end of winter. The bottom image is from Sept. 9, 2011, around the time sea ice reached its minimum extent this year, near the end of summer. Both extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice remains in a long-term decline, correlated with rising global surface temperatures.
<p>Image courtesy of NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, Goddard Space Flight Center.
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