The winter sea ice extent in the Arctic region reached a record low since 1979 for a second consecutive year, according to data from the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The Arctic sea ice extent was 14.29 million square kilometres on March 15, 2026, which is comparable to its extent of 14.31 million square kilometres from 2025.
Sea ice extent is defined as the total ocean area with at least 15 per cent concentration of ice. Generally, the highest sea ice extent is during the winter season with most of it melting in the summer months. Even then, some ice does not melt and would accumulate year-on-year. But in recent years, due to a rapidly warming Arctic region, less sea ice is getting accumulated.
The trend of peak wintertime sea ice extent in the Arctic region is in keeping with the long-term trend observed over the past several decades. The extent in 2026 was around 1.3 million square kilometres less than the average extent between 1981 and 2010.
The researchers from NASA and NSIDC at the University of Boulder have also observed changes in the thickness of the Arctic ice. “Based on what we’re seeing with NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite, much of the ice in the Arctic is thinner this year, especially in the Barents Sea northeast of Greenland,” said Nathan Kurtz, chief of the Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, according to an article published on NASA’s website.
“The Sea of Okhotsk that borders northern Japan and Russia also had relatively low ice this year — a region that naturally experiences significant year-to-year variability,” Kurtz added. “A low year or two don’t necessarily mean much by themselves,” said Walt Meier, scientist at NSIDC. But viewed within the long‑term downward trend since 1979, Meier added, they add to the overall picture of change in Arctic sea ice throughout the seasons.
Sea ice is extremely important for marine life in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Marine animals such as walrus and seals use sea ice for resting and birthing, polar bears use it for hunting and breeding, and many other mammals such as Arctic fox, whales and caribou use it as grounds for foraging, according to the NSIDC. Continued reduction in the sea ice extent in the Arctic region is an existential risk for many of these species.
“Poor ice conditions affect polar mammals in a variety of ways. If the pack ice retreats beyond the edge of the continental shelf where walrus typically feed, they must swim great distances—up to 402 kilometers (250 miles) round trip—to reach their feeding grounds, or crowd on shores and small islands. With disappearing sea ice, the survival of walruses is becoming a delicate issue,” according to the NSIDC.
“Researchers first observed large hordes of mostly females and calves on shores in 2007, when summer Arctic sea ice reached its second-lowest minimum extent on the satellite record. In 2014, about 35,000 walruses hauled out on a small stretch of beach in Point Lay, Alaska,” as per NSIDC.
“Such massive gatherings are dangerous. Crowded walruses are easily spooked. Any unfamiliar sound or smell, such as an airplane flying above or a whiff of a polar bear, can cause a deadly stampede such as the one observed in 2017 in Cape Schmidt, Russia, where 500 walruses died following a disturbance,” according to NSIDC. Communities living in the Arctic also use the sea ice for their livelihoods such as fishing and it is tied to their culture. Vanishing sea ice in the region could mean loss of cultural identity for the Arctic communities.