Awesome NASA/GSFC Animations and Photos of 2008 Arctic Sea Ice Melt Season

Close view of 2008 Arctic Sea Ice from AMSR-E
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 and the remaining ice is called the perennial ice cover. The AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite acquires high resolution measurements of the 89 GHz brightness temperature near the poles. Because this is a passive microwave sensor which is not so sensitive to atmospheric effects, this sensor is able to observe the entire polar region every day, even through clouds and snowfall. The false color of the sea ice, derived from the AMSR-E 6.25 km 89 GHz brightness temperature, highlights the fissures or divergence areas in the sea ice cover by warm brightness temperatures (in blue) while cold brightness temperatures, shown in brighter white, represent consolidated sea ice. The sea ice edge identifies areas containing at least 15% ice concentration in the three-day moving average of the AMSR-E 12.5 km sea ice concentration data. The animations below show the continuous motion of the Arctic sea ice during 2008 up to the point at which the Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent. The 2008 minimum extent of 4.52 sq km (1.74 sq miles) is the second lowest extent recorded since 1979.
		The animation of Arctic sea ice from January 1 through September 12, identified by NSIDC as the minimum extent for 2008. This animation has a two second hold on September 12, 2008. The date is displayed in the upper left corner. Duration: 34.0 seconds Available formats: 1280x720 (30 fps) MPEG-4 28 MB 640x360 (30 fps) MPEG-4 6 MB 1280x720 (30 fps) MPEG-2 106 MB 512x288 (30 fps) MPEG-1 18 MB 1280x720 (60 fps) Frames (SeaIce w dates) 1280x720 (30 fps) Frames (SeaIce w dates) 320x180 PNG 276 KB 160x80 PNG 66 KB 80x40 PNG 17 KB How to play our movies
		The animation of Arctic sea ice from January 1 through September 12, the date identified by NSIDC as the minimum extent for 2008. This animation has a two second hold on September 12, 2008. Duration: 34.0 seconds Available formats: 1280x720 (30 fps) MPEG-4 30 MB 640x360 (30 fps) MPEG-4 6 MB 1280x720 (30 fps) MPEG-2 106 MB 512x288 (30 fps) MPEG-1 18 MB 1280x720 (60 fps) Frames (SeaIce) 1280x720 (30 fps) Frames (SeaIce) 320x180 PNG 276 KB How to play our movies
		The date sequence with an alpha channel. Available formats: 1280x720 (60 fps) Frames (Date overlay) 1280x720 (30 fps) Frames (Date overlay) 320x180 PNG 1 KB How to play our movies
		Image of Arctic sea ice on March 10, 2008 when the sea ice reached the annual maximum extent of 15.21 million square kilometers (5.87 million square miles). Available formats: 3840 x 2160 TIFF 9 MB 320 x 180 PNG 262 KB
		Image of the Arctic sea ice on September 9, 2008. Available formats: 3840 x 2160 TIFF 11 MB 320 x 180 PNG 277 KB
		Image of Arctic sea ice on September 12, 2008. Available formats: 3840 x 2160 TIFF 10 MB 320 x 180 PNG 251 KB
		Image of Arctic sea ice on September 13, 2008 Available formats: 3840 x 2160 TIFF 10 MB 320 x 180 PNG 251 KB
		Image of Arctic sea ice on September 14 2008 Available formats: 3840 x 2160 TIFF 10 MB 320 x 180 PNG 251 KB
Animation Number: 3561 Animator: Cindy Starr (SVS) (Lead) Completed: 2008-10-02 Producer: Jefferson Beck (UMBC) Instrument: Aqua/AMSR-E Data sets: Daily L3 6.25 km 89 GHz Brightness Temperature (Tb) AMSR-E Level 3 12.5 km Sea Ice Concentration Data Collected: 2008-01-01 through 2008-09-14 Please give credit for this item to: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. The Blue Marble Next Generation data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
Link to webpage: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003500/a003561/index.html