Data
Arctic sea ice extent in September (OSI SAF)
Mean extent of Arctic sea ice in September since 1979 from EUMETSAT's OSI SAF Sea-Ice Index v3.0: the area of ocean with more than 15% ice cover. An independent European estimate made with a different algorithm from NSIDC's Sea Ice Index, so its values are higher; the two are shown side by side, never combined. Recent months come from OSI SAF's operational extension of its climate data record (OSI-438).
Latest value
5.34million km²
Northern Hemisphere oceans (the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas), September 2026. Version 3.0.
Arctic sea ice extent in September (OSI SAF) (million square kilometres)
Show as a table
| Period | Value (million km²) | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1979-09 | 7.49 | final |
| 1980-09 | 8.25 | final |
| 1981-09 | 7.73 | final |
| 1982-09 | 7.78 | final |
| 1983-09 | 7.93 | final |
| 1984-09 | 7.32 | final |
| 1985-09 | 7.35 | final |
| 1986-09 | 7.87 | final |
| 1987-09 | 7.65 | final |
| 1988-09 | 7.65 | final |
| 1989-09 | 7.27 | final |
| 1990-09 | 6.45 | final |
| 1991-09 | 6.77 | final |
| 1992-09 | 7.72 | final |
| 1993-09 | 6.73 | final |
| 1994-09 | 7.48 | final |
| 1995-09 | 6.36 | final |
| 1996-09 | 7.85 | final |
| 1997-09 | 6.86 | final |
| 1998-09 | 6.88 | final |
| 1999-09 | 6.43 | final |
| 2000-09 | 6.60 | final |
| 2001-09 | 7.00 | final |
| 2002-09 | 6.11 | final |
| 2003-09 | 6.44 | final |
| 2004-09 | 6.21 | final |
| 2005-09 | 5.71 | final |
| 2006-09 | 6.17 | final |
| 2007-09 | 4.56 | final |
| 2008-09 | 5.09 | final |
| 2009-09 | 5.68 | final |
| 2010-09 | 5.30 | final |
| 2011-09 | 4.98 | final |
| 2012-09 | 3.99 | final |
| 2013-09 | 5.46 | final |
| 2014-09 | 5.62 | final |
| 2015-09 | 5.08 | final |
| 2016-09 | 4.97 | final |
| 2017-09 | 5.22 | final |
| 2018-09 | 5.09 | final |
| 2019-09 | 4.75 | final |
| 2020-09 | 4.36 | final |
| 2021-09 | 5.47 | final |
| 2022-09 | 5.28 | final |
| 2023-09 | 4.86 | final |
| 2024-09 | 4.75 | final |
| 2025-09 | 5.24 | final |
| 2026-09 | 5.34 | final |
Where it comes from
- Producer
- EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice SAF (OSI SAF), produced by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute · EUMETSAT OSI SAF Sea-Ice Index v3.0 (OSI-420-a)
- Version
- 3.0
- Fetched
- 2026-10-05 (automatically), 17,861 bytes
- Fingerprint
- sha256 1df8e747017c43d744a8be016e5a910dc7f36987d6e6c46d26a922eaab8284b0 · Last-Modified Mon, 05 Oct 2026 10:22:11 GMT
- Copies
- No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
- Cite the producer
- EUMETSAT OSI SAF, Sea-Ice Index (2026), OSI-420-a, doi:10.15770/EUM_SAF_OSI_0026
What was done to it
Read the September rows of ice_extent_nh_sii-v3p0_monthly.txt (OSI SAF Sea-Ice Index v3.0, Northern Hemisphere monthly mean extent in km²), created by OSI SAF on 5 October 2026. Only Septembers that had ended when the file was created are used.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/ice/osisaf_sea_ice.py · code sha256 28f380a158835f27… · inputs 1df8e747017c…
Converted km² to million km² (divided by 1,000,000, exact decimal arithmetic). Months marked -999 after the record starts would be published as missing.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/ice/osisaf_sea_ice.py · code sha256 28f380a158835f27… · inputs 1df8e747017c…
What it covers
- Geography
- Northern Hemisphere oceans (the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas)
- Basis
- Sea ice extent: monthly mean area with more than 15% ice concentration, from the OSI SAF sea ice concentration climate data records OSI-450-a1, OSI-430-a and OSI-438. Not sea ice area, and not NSIDC's index.
- Unit
- million square kilometres (million km²)