Historical Sea Ice Atlas education and outreach
The Historical Sea Ice Atlas (HSIA) is a longstanding product developed by ACCAP’s John Walsh in 2014. The tool is pan-Arctic and was the first digital atlas of historical sea ice concentration for Alaska waters. A key feature of the Atlas is its integration of both quantitative and qualitative data from more than ten types of historical records, including satellite observations and ship logs. The tool is intended for those who live in northern Alaska coastal communities, hunt or fish in a marine environments, work in shipping or oil and gas, serve with the Coast Guard, research Arctic ecosystems, or are simply interested in Arctic sea ice data. This work was completed in collaboration with the Alaska Ocean Observing System, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and the University of Illinois.
More than a decade after its launch, ACCAP and AOOS are working to expand the use of the HSIA through a range of education and outreach efforts. Using data from the Atlas, ACCAP has developed two promotional items to share with potential users at conferences and other relevant events. They have also created a set of educational resources to help middleschool educators incorporate the tool into lessons on Arctic sea ice change.
Sea ice education resources
In collaboration with the International Arctic Research Center’s education and outreach group, ACCAP developed a series of educational materials on Arctic sea ice that incorporate the Historical Sea Ice Atlas. Designed for grades 5–8, the resource set includes five lessons.
In the “Sea Ice Explorer” activity, students analyze maps, graphs, and animations from the Atlas to understand how Arctic sea ice changes over time. They select a location near Alaska and use the data to create their own sea ice graph. In “Flipbook Scientist,” students assemble a flipbook using 30 sea ice concentration maps, helping them visualize changes over the past half century.
During the “Sea Ice Time Travel” lesson, students explore a pre-1920 date and location in the Atlas and write a mariner’s report describing sea ice conditions, combining data with creative imagination. In “Cryosphere Word Cloud,” students integrate art and language by designing a visual representation of key sea ice terms. Finally, in “Charting Arctic Communities,” students map three Arctic communities using latitude and longitude, then investigate nearby sea ice conditions and how they have changed over time.
Check back soon to download the lesson plans!
Sea ice stripes magnets
ACCAP developed a new analysis, using data from the Historical Sea Ice Atlas, to help visualize changes in Alaska’s sea ice concentration using the “climate stripes” concept. The bar code-like image turns average annual sea ice data into a row of colored stripes. The sea ice stripes are printed on freezer magnets providing a backdrop for ACCAP to communicate about Arctic change and promote the Historical Sea Ice Atlas as a useful tool.
On the magnet, each stripe represents one year’s sea ice concentration ranked relative to other years from 1900 to 2024 — light shades for years with high sea ice, and bold purples for low sea ice. The abrupt graphical color shift to bold purples in the 1970s demonstrates the declining sea ice trend in the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering seas. The maximum average annual ice concentration of 28% was reached in 1956, while the minimum concentration of only 19% occurred in 2023. Annual sea ice loss has a cascading effect on Alaska ecosystems including the fisheries, weather patterns, ocean temperatures, and circulation.
Sea ice lenticular stickers
ACCAP developed a second outreach product using lenticular stickers to show how sea ice has changed over the past century. These products are interactive, multi-layered stickers that create illusions of 3D depth, motion, or image-flipping (changing) when viewed from different angles. By shifting the angle of the sticker slightly, the map shows either the sea ice concentration in 1900 or in 2024.
