Satellite image showing Antarctic sea ice at its annual minimum extent on 25th February 2022. The yellow line shows the median minimum extent for the years 1981 to 2010. The Antarctic sea ice reaches a minimum in late February, at the end of the Antarctic summer. At 1.92 million square kilometres, this was the lowest extent ever recorded. This decline is thought to be due to an earlier maximum extent in 2021 and strong winds that pushed the ice into warmer waters. Data from microwave sensors (SSM/I and SSMIS) on Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites and the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) on the Nimbus-7 satellite.