Planning Your Vacation to the Polar Regions

October 5, 1978

October 8, 1978

This is a pair of SAR images of sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, taken by Seasat, a NASA oceanographic satellite that flew in 1978. Thick ice is red/pink. The ocean is calm on October 5th (dark), and very windy on October 8th (blue). Look for the same ice features in both images. By tagging identical floes in both images, we can see how dynamically the ice can move. In this case, the ice is moving clockwise and towards the right.

This sequence for both the Arctic and Antarctic shows the comparison of sea ice extent and ice concentration (percent of ice cover) for 4 months in 1988. Which months have the least ice? September in the Arctic and March in the Antarctic. How does the ice extent compare to the amount of sunlight? Good question, isn't it? These maps were obtained by a passive microwave satellite instrument.

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