Dynamic Earth: visualisation of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice

This fulldome visualisation from the Earth science planetarium show Dynamic Earth shows the advance and retreat of the sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Sea ice is frozen seawater floating on the surface of the ocean. Some sea ice is semi-permanent, persisting from year to year, and some is seasonal, melting and refreezing from season to season. The sea ice cover reaches its minimum extent at the end of each summer. The remaining ice is called the perennial ice cover.

This animation shows the advance and retreat of the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. The sea ice changes from day to day showing a running 3-day average sea ice concentration in the region where the concentration is greater than 15%.

The animation ends by flying over the Antarctic Penninsula.