#osisaf — Public Fediverse posts

In April 2026, the Sea-Ice global extent was 6.7% below 1991-2020 mean. Since the beginning of records (1978):
- #arctic 2rd lowest monthly mean, with 4.8% less extent than normal (-692,385km²)
- #antarctic 11th lowest monthly mean, with 9.7% less extent than normal (-704,134km²)

For more, check the latest version of our Sea Ice Index, operational since yesterday (04/05/2026) on https://osi-saf.eumetsat.int/sea-ice-index

#ClimateChange #OSISAF @eumetsat

Openings in #seaice have begun on the Siberian shelves.
Furthermore, #Barents and southwestern #Kara seas exhibit abnormally low #iceextent.

Maps show the first two weeks of June - mean and anomaly.

Source: #OSISAF sea-ice concentration

Daily Weddell Sea #iceextent has been *record-low for two weeks*;
-right now, the ice extent is less than the previous lowest extent for this day of the year by more than 200.000 km².

I found it interesting to plot the 2023 values against the record max/min (dashed line) and the climatology for the 1980s (purple) and 2010s (green). Are the seasonal variations flattening out in the Weddell Sea?

Source: #OSISAF sea ice climate data

For this day-of-year, #Arctic - and #Global #seaice extent comes out as the third lowest on record. #Antarctic #extent comes out as the fourth lowest.

source: #OSISAF SII-v2.1

With the #Arctic #recordlow #seaice extent of March 14, where did we lose sea ice during the last four decades?

Shown below is the #trend of the sea-ice concentration in the Arctic for the first two weeks of March.

Source: #OSISAF sea-ice concentration v3

With the #Arctic #recordlow #seaice extent of March 14, where did we lose sea ice during the last four decades?

Shown below is the #trend of the sea-ice concentration in the Arctic for the first two weeks of March.

Source: #OSISAF sea-ice concentration v3

With the #Arctic #recordlow #seaice extent of March 14, where did we lose sea ice during the last four decades?

Shown below is the #trend of the sea-ice concentration in the Arctic for the first two weeks of March.

Source: #OSISAF sea-ice concentration v3

With the #Arctic #recordlow #seaice extent of March 14, where did we lose sea ice during the last four decades?

Shown below is the #trend of the sea-ice concentration in the Arctic for the first two weeks of March.

Source: #OSISAF sea-ice concentration v3

With the #Arctic #recordlow #seaice extent of March 14, where did we lose sea ice during the last four decades?

Shown below is the #trend of the sea-ice concentration in the Arctic for the first two weeks of March.

Source: #OSISAF sea-ice concentration v3

Whoops, here we go again. #Global #seaice extent again #recordlow for this time of the year.

Source: #OSISAF

Whoops, here we go again. #Global #seaice extent again #recordlow for this time of the year.

Source: #OSISAF

Whoops, here we go again. #Global #seaice extent again #recordlow for this time of the year.

Source: #OSISAF

Took a quick look at the #Antarctic #SeaIce data from #OSISAF colleagues. It's not looking great ..
#NCKF

After some years of rising extent the last few years have shown a starting decline down to this year's record minimum...

https://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/climatology_v3/extent.uk.php

Five consecutive days of strong northward #icedrift causes a rapid drop in the #seaice conditions in the regions of #Svalbard and northern #Barents Sea.

The drop in the #seaice extent in the #Barents Sea is difficult to miss in this figure.

Are we going towards a record-LONG #icefree Barents Sea? 🤔

Source: #OSISAF

Still decreasing #Antarctic #seaice extent.

* Each day, #iceextent holds the record-low for this time of year.

* Approaching the yearly minimum, AND approaching an ALL-TIME minimum:

Today, 2.32 mill km²

The three lowest yearly minimums:
- 2022-02-18 2.17 mill km²
- 2017-03-01 2.24 mill km²
- 2023-??-?? ?.??

And #forecasts agree on a continuous decrease in the next days.

Source: #OSISAF

Since the beginning of 2023, #Arctic #seaice has been among the 2nd to 8th lowest on record for each day during January; today being the 2nd-lowest after the same day in 2018.
According to the short-term #forecasts the #iceextent will keep increasing in the next few days.

Sea-ice source: #OSISAF
Forecasts: #ECMWF, #CMEMS, #GOFS

We are still not receiving data from the DMSP #satellites F16, F17, and F18.

These three satellites carry the #SSMIS instrument that #OSISAF and #NSIDC use for their #SeaIce climate monitoring.

The issue is apparently related to power outage on the ground segment: https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/messages/2023/01/MSG_20230110_1144.html

Expect delays and/or data gaps in some upcoming #SeaIce products.

fyi @ZLabe @kevpluck @SigneAaboe @AlaskaWx

@kevpluck @AlaskaWx Good.

I think #nsidc has some temporal interpolation going (we do that at #osisaf).

We did not manage to retrieve #SSMIS data for the 9th (lost for good?). As a result, our sea-ice index shows an "interpolation" flag for that day.

Wooohoooo ! We are now receiving data from the #SSMIS F16, F17, and F18 satellite missions !

#osisaf and #nsidc will thus soon resume their #seaice extent processing.

@AlaskaWx @zlabe @kevpluck

Update on the #SSMIS data shortage (that prevents us to update our #osisaf #seaice extent timeseries) ...

"Problem with planned maintenance caused a rack to go down affecting systems in it. Technicians working to bring rack up and recover data."

So still #nodata, but confirmation that the satellites are doing fine.

Oh well... we'll wait.