Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum extent on September 12, 2026, covering an estimated 4.6 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles), according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The figure ties 2008, 2010 and 2025 for the 10th-lowest minimum in the satellite record, NASA Earth Observatory reported on October 7, 2026.

Satellites have tracked the ice's annual growth and retreat continuously since late 1978. Every summer from 2007 through 2026 ranks among the 20 lowest minimum extents on record, with the lowest in September 2012. Recent September extents have been relatively steady, which NASA scientists partly attribute to increased cloud cover limiting sunlight-driven melt. Even so, the summer minimum remains well below the long-term average, and the remaining ice is younger and thinner, with less multiyear ice surviving melt seasons.

The March 2026 maximum statistically tied the 2025 maximum as the lowest in the satellite record. NASA says natural variability alone cannot explain the decline observed across the record; natural cycles and rising global temperatures have combined to melt more ice. Scientists have projected an essentially ice-free Arctic could occur at least once before the middle of the 21st century.