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 1979–2022 for a total of 44 years.
| June 2022 | Sea Ice Extent | Anomaly 1991-2020 | Trend per decade | Rank (44 years) | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| million km² | million mi² | Year(s) | million km² | million mi² | |||||
| Northern Hemisphere | 10.88 | 4.20 | -3.72% | -3.98% | Largest | 34th | 1979 | 12.53 | 4.84 |
| Smallest | 10th | 2016 | 10.41 | 4.02 | |||||
| Ties: 2015 | |||||||||
| Southern Hemisphere | 12.22 | 4.72 | -9.21% | +0.45% | Largest | 44th | 2014 | 14.69 | 5.67 |
| Smallest | 1st | 2022 | 12.22 | 4.72 | |||||
| Globe | 23.10 | 8.92 | -6.70% | -1.58% | Largest | 43rd | 1979 | 26.72 | 10.32 |
| Smallest | 2nd | 2019 | 22.84 | 8.82 | |||||
Data Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Period of record: 1979–2022 (44 years)
Globally, June 2022 saw the second-lowest June sea ice extent on record. Only June 2019 had a smaller sea ice extent.
The Arctic sea ice extent for June 2022 was 10.86 million square km (4.19 million square miles), which is 347,000 square miles — roughly the size of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark combined — below the 1981–2010 average. Overall, June 2022 was the 10th-smallest June sea ice extent on record. By the end of the month, the Barents Sea was nearly free of ice and the Chukchi, East Siberian, and Kara seas and Hudson Bay each had below-average extent according to the NSIDC. Baffin Bay had near-normal sea ice extent for the month.
In Antarctica, the June sea ice extent set a record low since records began in 1979. The June 2022 Antarctic sea ice extent was 12.13 million square km (4.68 million square miles), or 1.22 million square km (471,000 square miles) below average. According to the NSIDC, Antarctic sea ice growth was generally slower than average, especially in the Bellingshausen and eastern Weddell seas.