Disappearing Arctic sea ice breaks frightening record<\/p>\n
The Arctic sea ice maximum this year effectively tied for the lowest ever on record, with major implications for polar ecosystems and global warming<\/p>\n
By Andrea Thompson<\/a> edited by Claire Cameron<\/a><\/p>\n Sea ice breaking in Svalbard after a ship passes through.<\/p>\n MB Photography\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The shell of ice that expands atop the Arctic Ocean every winter has done all the growing it will do this season\u2014and that hasn\u2019t been much. In fact, the annual winter maximum sea ice extent this year has tied for the record lowest amount in the nearly 50 years that satellites have been keeping watch.<\/p>\n \u201cThis record low maximum gives a head start to the spring and summer melt season,\u201d said Walt Meier, senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), in a press release.<\/p>\n The expanse of Arctic Ocean covered by ice grew to 14.29 million square kilometers (5.52 million square miles), likely peaking on March 15, NSIDC reported on Thursday. This is just below a past record low of 14.31 million km2 (5.53 million square miles) set last year, but anything within 40,000 km2 (15,000 square miles) is considered a tie.<\/p>\n On supporting science journalism<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing<\/a>. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n The record underscores the rapid loss of Earth\u2019s northern polar ice cap, driven by the human-caused rise in global temperatures. This year\u2019s winter low was 1.36 million km2 (525,000 square miles) below the 1981\u20132010 average. That\u2019s a loss of ice about twice the size of Texas.<\/p>\n The disappearance of Arctic ice\u2014which is even more pronounced in the summer months\u2014not only threatens fragile polar habitats and the species that live there; it also exacerbates global warming. The ice is naturally reflective, sending some of the sun\u2019s rays back out to space. But the darker open ocean absorbs those rays, raising temperatures and driving further ice melt.<\/p>\n \u201cOne or two record low years don\u2019t necessarily mean much by themselves, but in the context of the significant downward trend that we\u2019ve observed since 1979, it reinforces the dramatic change to Arctic sea ice throughout all seasons,\u201d Meier said.<\/p>\n Some scientists have projected that the Arctic will experience its first ice-free day<\/a>\u2014defined as the moment when ice cover shrinks below one million km2 (386,000 square miles)\u2014before the end of the decade. The pace of ice loss and the implications have spurred some researchers to see if we can refreeze the Arctic<\/a>, for example, by pumping colder deep ocean water on existing sea ice.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. 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I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 26, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Disappearing Arctic sea ice breaks frightening record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-564245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Floating](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/RF-Sea-Ice-GettyImages-1595492689.jpg\")
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