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September 2025

NASA Science Calendar Image of the Month. Image credit: NASA’s Gulfstream V Research Aircraft

Aerial view of fractured sea ice floating in the Arctic Ocean. Large white ice sheets are broken into irregular shapes, with deep blue melt ponds and dark open water channels visible between them.

September 2025 Image

Learn about September amazing image. Explore related topics, activities, games, and download desktop wallpaper.

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Thinning Arctic Sea Ice

  • Sea ice is frozen seawater that floats in the ocean. This photo, taken from NASA’s Gulfstream V Research Aircraft on July 21, 2022, shows Arctic sea ice in the Lincoln Sea north of Greenland.

    Image and text credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/ICESat-2/Rachel Tilling

    Explore how NASA ice scientists study Arctic ice

    Thinning Arctic Sea Ice image on desktop computer screen

Do NASA Science!

  • Do you live in Northern North America? Join the Fresh Eyes on Ice project and help scientists study ice!

    The Fresh Eyes on Ice project asks you to make observations of river ice in Canada, Alaska, and other parts of North America to enable community safety and climate science. Your observations provide information for fishers, hunters, and travellers.

    Learn how you can get involved

    People bundled in winter gear drill a hole into the ice with a hand auger during an ice fishing outing, with snowmobiles and other participants in the background.

Discover More about Arctic Sea Ice

Side-by-side satellite views of the Arctic (left) and Antarctic (right) sea ice extent on June 21, 2023.

Daily Polar Sea Ice, Two Year History

This visualization shows the daily Arctic and Antarctic sea ice and seasonal land cover change over a two-year history from the present.

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Satellite view of Arctic sea ice extent on September 11, 2024, with a yellow outline showing the 1981–2010 average minimum.

Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 2024

Animation of Arctic sea ice maximum extent, March 14 2024, to its minimum, September 11, 2024.

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Satellite view of Arctic sea ice maximum extent on March 22, 2025, covering 14.33 million square kilometers (5.53 million square miles).

Arctic Sea Ice Maximum 2025

Arctic sea ice maximum extent 2025, animation from 2024 minimum.

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Graph of annual Arctic sea ice minimum area from 1979 to 2024, showing a sharp long-term decline from about 7 million to below 4 million square kilometers.

Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Area 1979-2024, With Graph

Satellite-based passive microwave images of sea ice have provided a reliable tool for continuously monitoring changes in the Arctic ice since 1979.

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Graph of global, Arctic, and Antarctic sea ice extent from January to December 2025, showing seasonal fluctuations in million square kilometers.

Sea Ice Extent 1978-2025

A visualization of global sea ice extent starting in November 1978 and going through March 2025.

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Satellite view of Antarctic sea ice minimum extent on March 1, 2025, measuring 1.98 million square kilometers (764,000 square miles).

Antarctic Sea Ice Minimum, 2025

On March 1, 2025, Antarctic sea ice officially reached its minimum extent for the year.

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Satellite view of Antarctic sea ice maximum extent on September 19, 2024, measuring 17.16 million square kilometers (6.63 million square miles).

Antarctic Sea Ice Maximum, 2024

Animation Antarctic sea ice minimum extent, February 21 2023, to its maximum, September 19 2024.

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Map of Antarctic sea ice concentration on December 1, 2024, showing varying ice coverage around the continent in color-coded percentages.

Antarctic Sea Ice Concentration, 2024

Vivid still image showing the continent as negative space and the ice in false color based on concentration.

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Global map showing land, oceans, and polar sea ice coverage with extensive ice across the Arctic and Northern Hemisphere in winter.

Science on a Sphere: Global Sea Ice

This visualization shows daily Arctic and Antarctic sea ice and seasonal land cover change over a two-year period between 2023 and 2024.

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Sea Ice on Earth Observatory

Sea ice is frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface. It forms in both the Arctic and the Antarctic in each hemisphere’s winter.

Read More
Engineer in a cleanroom suit working on a large spacecraft mirror with green laser light simulation overlaid.

The Science of ICESat-2

ICESat-2 provides scientists with height measurements of glaciers, sea ice, forests and more.

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Explore our other featured images

A vivid aurora borealis in shades of purple, green, and pink illuminates the night sky, reflected on a calm body of water with a silhouette of rolling hills in the distance. NASA logo and text 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration' are visible in the upper corners.

January 2025

Auroras
A digital NASA image depicting a sequence of asteroids arranged in a curved trajectory against a black background. The NASA logo appears in the upper right corner, and the text 'National Aeronautics and Space Administration' is visible in the upper left. The bottom left corner includes the URL 'www.nasa.gov.'

February 2025

Asteroids
Computer monitor displaying a vibrant scientific visualization with blue, red, and green cell-like patterns.

March 2025

Space Radiation
Air and Ocean Views

April 2025

Air and Ocean
Cool as Ice

May 2025

Mars
Colorful composite image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, showing intricate, glowing filaments in blue, red, green, and yellow. Captured using NASA’s James Webb and Chandra telescopes, the image reveals expanding shockwaves and stellar debris from the exploded star, set against a star-filled background.

June 2025

Supernova

July 2025

Our Sun
This face-on view of spiral galaxy NGC 628 is split diagonally, showing observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the top left portion of the image and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the bottom right portion. JWST�s observations combine near- and mid-infrared light, while HST�s observations showcase visible light. Complementary views show predominantly stars (HST) and obscuring dust (JWST). In JWST�s high-resolution infrared images, the gas and dust stand out in stark shades of orange and red and show finer spiral shapes with the appearance of jagged edges, though these areas are still diffuse. In HST�s images, the gas and dust show up as hazy dark brown lanes, following the same spiral shapes. HST�s images are about the same resolution as JWST�s, but the gas and dust obscure a lot of the smaller-scale star formation. Image and text credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (University of Oxford), Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) Team

August 2025

Galaxies
Thinning Arctic Sea Ice

September 2025

Arctic Sea Ice
Jupiter's moon Io appearing golden-tan against the blackness of space, half the moon bathed in shadow, half in light, bisected vertically, with mountain peaks and volcanos pockmarking the surface.

October 2025

Jupiter's Moon Io