JAXA confirms 2018 Arctic Sea Ice extent came in 2nd lowest on record. JAXA is the Japanese NASA, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and their sea ice cover measurement service is widely considered to be the most accurate on the planet for Arctic sea ice extent. Their lowest year on record was 2016. Because of 2018’s 2nd place, 2017 is now 3rd lowest.

PIOMAS is the best source for Arctic sea ice volume, but they generally don’t believe in setting the record straight for annual sea ice amounts. They also do not believe sea ice could be important enough to merit daily publishing of figures, so limiting their releases to 12 times a year, compared to JAXA’s 300–325. PIOMAS waits around for about a week every new year before they publish the December figures for the previous year, so for now, where 2018 ranked for sea ice volume is anyone’s guess. PIOMAS has also yet to publish their very first annual volume graph, because they don’t think sea ice is very important, as an indicator of abrupt global warming, or otherwise.