Arctic Sea Ice Reaches 2026 Annual Minimum Extent

Written and edited by the WorldPing NewsdeskPublished Updated Original reporting: NASA
Arctic Sea Ice Reaches 2026 Annual Minimum ExtentWorldPing
Image via NASA.

What happened

Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum extent on Sept.

12, according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The ice covered an estimated 1.78 million square miles (4.

Key facts

  • 12, according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
  • The ice covered an estimated 1.78 million square miles (4.
  • Reported by NASA and published Wed, 23 Sep 2026 17:15:32 UTC.

Why it matters

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What to watch next

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Coverage timeline

When each newsroom published on this story, oldest first — all times UTC.

  1. Arctic Sea Ice Reaches 2026 Annual Minimum Extent

  2. NASA’s Hubble Telescope Reaches Milestone, Looks for Elusive Supernova

  3. The Antarctic's only two flowering plants reveal opposing strategies for surviving long-term warming

Sources

The original report was published by NASA. WorldPing does not claim that reporting — this page summarises and contextualises it.

Read the full report at NASA

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