Sea ice at the North Pole is rapidly dwindling.

GeoTIFFs from the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Sea Ice Index, Sept. 1980-2020

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The average extent of northern sea ice has changed dramatically since 1980 as seen in the corresponding figure. This is consistent with rising global temperatures, both atmospheric and oceanic. This also directly contributes to rising sea levels, which in turn leads to flooding and higher likelihood of hurricane formation.

GeoTIFF files of September sea ice extent every 5 years were obtained from the NSIDC, polygonized with QGIS, and further manipulated with mapshaper to return files in geoJSON format.

Hover over the sea ice (depicted in white) to view the numerical measure of the area. The interactive globe can also be dragged and zoomed out.

The seas are warming, and sea levels are rising.

Data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
Global Average Absolute Sea Level Change, 2018;
Climate Change Indicators: Sea Surface Temperature, 2016

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As global temperatures steadily rise and the average extent of northern sea ice depletes, sea level continues to increase each year. To model this increase, a linear regression model was used with inputs including historical global temperature, sea temperature, and CO₂ emissions.

A comparison was done between the machine learning linear regression model and the basic linear regression performed on only the historical sea level data. As can be seen, these two methodologies output very similar forecasts, with the machine learning model projecting slightly lower sea levels by the year 2200.

In addition to sea level analysis, a linear regression model was also employed to predict sea temperature change (anomaly) using sea level, global temperature, and glacier mass.

In both sea temperature and sea level models, a steady increase is predicted.

Hover over the model to view values, and toggle visible projections in the legend.