arctic ice volumes 1979 to 2026

1979 ice volume is 30171 km3
2026 ice volume is 17706 km3



Trends in sea ice thickness/volume are another important indicator of Arctic climate change. While sea ice thickness observations are sparse, here we utilize the ocean and sea ice model, PIOMAS (Zhang and Rothrock, 2003), to visualize February sea ice thickness and volume from 1979 to 2026. Updated for February 2026. - Dr. Zachary Labe https://zacklabe.com/research-areas/