The global sea-ice extent hit the lowest record on Feb. 10, 2018. It was revealed by the observations from the "Shizuku" (GCOM-W : Global Change Observation Mission Water). The Global Sea-ice extent has been continuously observed by a variety of different space-borne sensors since 1978 (See Fig.1). As the result, the global sea-ice extent in 2018 has been slightly smaller than that of the lowest record measured in 2017. Figure 2 shows the global sea-ice cover on Feb. 10, 2018 which was the lowest since 1978. A white line indicates the average extent on Feb. 10 for 30 years from 1981 to 2010. The distribution of sea-ice in the global has diminished.

Figure 1.  Sea-ice extent variation on the Earth since 1978.

Figure 2. Sea Ice Concentration of Arctic (left) and Antarctic (right) by observation of “Shizuku”. White line is the average extent on Feb. 10 from 1981 to 2010.

In case of analysis of the long-term observation, it may be the problem that the difference in the data format between satellites. Therefore, it is provided a tool for the data format by G-Portal system. You can try to analyze something of your interests using the Earth observation satellite data and the tool.

You can get the latest information of the global sea-ice extent by the following site.