The daily images for Sea Ice Today now uses input data from the JAXA GCOM-W1 AMSR2 passive microwave instrument. AMSR2 replaces the previous data source, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) SSMIS passive microwave instrument. For further details, see the NSIDC news announcement: New version release: NOAA/NSIDC Sea Ice Index, Version 4.

Antarctica’s winter
Sea Ice in the Southern Hemisphere tracked at third lowest in the satellite record throughout July, and grew at slower-than-average rates through the month. At month’s end, Antarctica’s sea ice cover was about 850,000 square kilometers (330,000 square miles) above the record low extent for the day, and 1.3 million square kilometers (500,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average (median) extent. Ice cover remains very low in the Bellingshausen Sea, Cosmonaut Sea, Ross Sea, and southwestern Pacific (south of Australia) regions. Recent ice growth has reduced the shortfall in the Bellingshausen Sea and Cosmonaut Sea, but has created larger shortfalls in the Ross and southwestern Pacific.