New NASA Movie: Arctic Sea Ice Extent: 1978 - 2009

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) put together all the data they've ever collected via satellite and produced a motion picture graphic.

They've put it up at YouTube. Here's an embed, "Arctic Sea Ice timelapse from 1978 to 2009"



In 2007 I posted a similar mpeg animation, derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI).

I like the DMSP mpeg4 visualization, but the NSIDC visualization has five extra years data. And, most importantly I think, the new one is better 'tuned'; it better represents what a viewer on the ground would see; James Bay at the bottom of Hudson's Bay Canada becomes ice-bound every year (so far), as does the Alaskan Archipelago.

You can download the file by clicking on the earth satellite view. It's 2.9 MB, opens in a blank tab and pops up your download management system. The 'movie' is from NASA and will play in any player as long as you have mpeg4 codecs.

My StatCounter account shows I've gotten a lot of visits to the movie; people like to see the data like that. Very effective imho.



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