NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
Sea Ice Extent
The sea ice extent data for the Arctic and Antarctic are provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and are measured from passive microwave instruments onboard NOAA Satellites. The sea ice extent period of record is from 1979–2023 for a total of 45 years.
| June 2023 | Sea Ice Extent | Anomaly 1991-2020 | Trend per decade | Rank (45 years) | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| million km² | million mi² | Year(s) | million km² | million mi² | |||||
| Northern Hemisphere | 10.96 | 4.23 | -3.01% | -3.81% | Largest | 33rd | 1979 | 12.53 | 4.84 |
| Smallest | 13th | 2016 | 10.41 | 4.02 | |||||
| Southern Hemisphere | 11.02 | 4.25 | -18.13% | -0.07% | Largest | 45th | 2014 | 14.69 | 5.67 |
| Smallest | 1st | 2023 | 11.02 | 4.25 | |||||
| Globe | 21.98 | 8.49 | -11.23% | -1.78% | Largest | 45th | 1979 | 26.72 | 10.32 |
| Smallest | 1st | 2023 | 21.98 | 8.49 | |||||
Data Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Period of record: 1979–2023 (45 years)
June 2023 set a record for the lowest global June sea ice extent on record. This primarily resulted from record-low sea ice extent in the Antarctic, which saw its second month with the lowest sea ice extent on record. June 2023 sea ice extent, globally, was 860,000 square kilometers (330,000 square miles) less than the previous record low from June 2019.
The Arctic sea ice extent for June 2023 ranked as the 13th smallest in the satellite record at 10.96 million square kilometers (4.23 million square miles). This was 340,000 square kilometers (130,000 square miles) below the 1991–2020 average.
Sea ice extent was below average in the Barents, Bering, and Kara Seas, and the Hudson Bay. The Beaufort and Laptev Seas, the Canadian Archipelago, the Central Arctic, and the Sea of Okhotsk had near-normal extents for June. Baffin Bay and the Chukchi and Greenland Seas had slightly above-average sea ice extent this June.
Sea ice extent in Antarctica continued to track at record lows. Four of the six months in 2023 have seen Antarctic sea ice extent at record-breaking low levels. The remaining two months saw extent at second (March) and third (April) lowest levels on record.
The June 2023 Antarctic sea ice extent ranked lowest on record at 11.02 million square kilometers (4.25 million square miles), or 2.44 million square kilometers (940,000 square miles) below the 1991–2020 average. This was 1.2 million square kilometers (470,000 square miles) below the previous record low from June 2022.