{"id":2255,"date":"2026-09-25T01:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/briefing\/2026-09-25-arctic-sea-ice-minimum-en\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T01:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:11:00","slug":"2026-09-25-arctic-sea-ice-minimum-en","status":"publish","type":"briefing","link":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/briefing\/2026-09-25-arctic-sea-ice-minimum-en\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2026 Arctic minimum was 4.60 million km\u00b2, tied tenth lowest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>2026-09-25 01:11 KST<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It tied 2008, 2010 and 2025; all 20 lowest extents in the record occurred in the last 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a relatively cool Arctic Ocean summer, unusually loose ice extended toward the North Pole.<\/p>\n<h2>Extent is not ice area<\/h2>\n<p>Extent counts every satellite grid cell with at least 15% ice concentration. It is not the actual ice-only area or thickness.<\/p>\n<h2>Why tenth matters<\/h2>\n<p>Weather strongly affects one year\u2019s rank. The longer record remains far below earlier decades, with the last 20 years occupying all bottom 20 places.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/arctic-sea-ice-minimum-en.png\" alt=\"The 2026 Arctic minimum was 4.60 million km\u00b2, tied tenth lowest\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption class=\"op-briefing-image-caption\">This AI-generated image explains the topic; it is not a photograph of an actual event, observation or field site.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Do not mix hemispheres<\/h2>\n<p>Antarctic ice likely peaked at 17.59 million km\u00b2 on 14 September. Its seasonal maximum is not directly comparable with the Arctic minimum.<\/p>\n<h2>Next check<\/h2>\n<p>NSIDC plans a fuller early-October analysis. Final rank, thickness, regional concentration and multiyear ice should be assessed together.<\/p>\n<h2>Primary source and independent checks<\/h2>\n<p>Primary source: <a href=\"https:\/\/nsidc.org\/news-analyses\/news-stories\/arctic-sea-ice-has-reached-minimum-extent-2026-antarctic-sea-ice-maximum-most-likely-reached-well\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NSIDC 2026 minimum release<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Institutional explanation: <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/science-research\/earth-science\/climate-science\/sea-ice\/arctic-sea-ice-2026-min\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NASA Science report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Independent check: <a href=\"https:\/\/nsidc.org\/sea-ice-today\/sea-ice-tools\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NSIDC Sea Ice Index tools<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Read in other languages<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/briefing\/2026-09-25-arctic-sea-ice-minimum-ko\/\">\ud55c\uad6d\uc5b4<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/briefing\/2026-09-25-arctic-sea-ice-minimum-en\/\">English<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/briefing\/2026-09-25-arctic-sea-ice-minimum-es\/\">Espa\u00f1ol<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/briefing\/2026-09-25-arctic-sea-ice-minimum-ja\/\">\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/briefing\/2026-09-25-arctic-sea-ice-minimum-vi\/\">Ti\u1ebfng Vi\u1ec7t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arctic sea-ice extent provisionally bottomed at 4.60 million km\u00b2 on 12 September, tied tenth lowest in the 48-year satellite record. It was not the record low, and wind-driven compaction could change the date or value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":[],"class_list":["post-2255","briefing","type-briefing","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/briefing\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/briefing"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/briefing"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}