October, 2007 (1)

A false color view of Figure 1 shows the coast from northern Alaska to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago with a length of about 2200km, and the Arctic Sea (larger image). The image was captured from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer) on the NASA's Terra satellite in early June 2007. Resolution of the image is 250 m.

In this season of early summer, snow and ice on the land have disappeared. White objects over the land are clouds.

In the image of 2007, the sea ice from the coast of Alaska to the western high-latitude region is depicted in violet. It indicates that the surface of the sea ice is melted and covered with ponds.

Figure 2 bellow shows almost the same area in early June 2005 (larger image). The sea ice looks comparatively white. Surface melting progresses in 2007 compared to that of the two years ago.

Furthermore, sea ice in the northern coast of Banks Island is broken in pieces. Usually, multi-year ice, which was not melted during last summer and remains more than one year, is covering the area. The collapse of multi-year ice in 2007 suggests that the Arctic sea ice is becoming fragile year by year.

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Satellite: Terra
Sensor: MODIS
Color: 858nm as Red, 858nm as Green, 646nm as Blue. This is a false color image in which surface-melting zones are enhanced in violet.