COTALAND water park, restaurant news: 6 trending Austin-area stories | Bastrop - Cedar Creek  Community Impact

Arizona is trending for one of the nation's best safeties closing in on a decision  On3

Trending stocks this week as investors weigh Fed outlook, AI concerns  Seeking Alpha

Jeremiyah Love 'trending well' to play despite ankle reinjury  ESPN

Buffalo Bills trending up, trending down: Who Bills need on Monday Night Football in Los Angeles  Buffalo Rumblings

1. Google announces the Fitbit Edge, a middle ground between Pixel Watch 5 and Fitbit Air  Ars Technica
2. Google Fitbit Edge: Our all-new smartest fitness tracker ever  blog.google
3. Google Debuts $180 Fitbit Edge Tracker in Continued Health Push  Bloomberg.com
4. Fitbit Edge May Be the Sweet Spot for Smartwatch Noncommittals  CNET
5. Google’s Fitbit Edge Debuts a Replaceable Battery—and Brings Back the Screen  WIRED

1. No Man’s Sky is coming to the iPhone and iPad  The Verge
2. App Store Indie Games Week kicks off today  Apple
3. No Man’s Sky Is Coming To iOS, And It’s Looking Utterly Extraordinary  Kotaku
4. No Man's Sky is getting an 'impossible' mobile port, thanks to Light No Fire  Polygon.com
5. No Man's Sky Is Coming To iPhone And iPad As The App Store Celebrates Indie Games Week  Engadget

1. CMF’s First Speakers Look Like Milk Cartons and Have Swappable Buttons  Gizmodo
2. CMF’s first wireless speakers look like musical milk cartons  The Verge
3. CMF’s First Speakers Are Built Around Color, Modularity and Portability  Hypebeast
4. Today in Gear: Nothing’s First-of-a-Kind Speakers Are Both Affordable and Weird  Gear Patrol
5. Here’s 2 New Nothing CMF Bluetooth Speakers Called “Speaker S” and “Speaker M”  Droid Life

1. New Apple TV 4K, HomeView, and HomePod Mini: 16 Details Just Leaked  MacRumors
2. Apple Is About to Close the Biggest Hole In Its Ecosystem With HomeView  Bloomberg.com
3. Apple set to reveal new products in 'Welcome Home' event  USA Today
4. What to expect from Apple's October 13 'Welcome home' releases  AppleInsider
5. Apple’s New Smart Home Hub Is Reportedly Called HomeView and Will Ship in November  CNET

1. Linus Torvalds "Did What I Preach", Used AI To Make Code Decipherable & Uncovered More Bugs  Phoronix
2. Linus Torvalds Working On A Hefty Linux Kernel Improvement With Claude Code  Phoronix
3. ‘I use AI to do the things that I’m bad at’: Linus Torvalds on why it works for him  ZDNET
4. As the Linux community debates LLM-generated content rules, Linus Torvalds says he "really likes using AI"  XDA
5. KDE is fighting over whether AI belongs in Linux. Here's what's at stake  How-To Geek

This story is an update to the Antarctic sea ice feature in our World of Change series tracking long-term change on Earth’s surface through satellite imagery.

Unlike the Arctic—an ocean basin surrounded by land—the Antarctic is a large continent surrounded by an ocean. Because of this geography, sea ice has more room to expand during the winter. However, that ice also stretches into warmer latitudes, leading to more melting in the summer. Antarctic sea ice usually peaks in September, around the end of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, and retreats to a minimum in February.

According to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Antarctic sea ice in 2026 likely reached its annual maximum extent on September 14 (above). On that date, the ice covered an estimated 17.59 million square kilometers (6.79 million square miles), making it the third-lowest maximum on record.

The maps below show the average concentration of Antarctic sea ice for the month of September (left) and the following February (right) from 1990 to 2026. Opaque white areas indicate the highest concentrations, and dark blue areas are open water. The images include only areas where ice concentration was at least 15 percent, a threshold scientists commonly use to count an area as ice-covered in satellite data. Scientists refer to the total area of these regions as the “sea ice extent.”

From Record Highs to Record Lows

From 1979 until 2014, total Antarctic sea ice increased by about 1 percent per decade. Whether the increase was a sign of meaningful change is uncertain because ice extents vary considerably from year to year around Antarctica. For three consecutive years, from 2012 to 2014, satellites observed new record highs for winter sea ice extent. These highs occurred while Arctic ice was in steep decline.

The climb came to an end in 2015, and significant decreases in sea ice around Antarctica started to occur in 2016. There have since been years with small rebounds, but overall, Antarctic sea ice coverage has largely remained lower than normal. Both the record low minimum and record low maximum occurred in 2023. Scientists will continue to observe the area each year to find out if the decline is part of a long-term change or a statistical fluctuation.

Seeing Through the Clouds

To determine sea ice extent, scientists rely on satellites with passive microwave sensors that measure the microwave energy Earth naturally emits. Sea ice emits more of this energy than open water, so it stands out in microwave images. Because microwaves pass through clouds, the satellites can observe sea ice regularly, regardless of weather.

The record began in late 1978 with data collected by NASA’s Nimbus-7, followed by Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites starting in 1987, and by NASA’s Aqua satellite between 2002 and 2011. In 2025, scientists began using observations from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s GCOM-W satellite. 

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

References & Resources

• NASA Earthdata (2026, October) Sea Ice. Accessed October 8, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2026, October 6) World of Change: Antarctic Sea Ice. Accessed October 8, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2016, September 16) Sea Ice. Accessed October 8, 2026.
• NASA Earth Science (2026, September 23) Arctic Sea Ice Reaches 2026 Annual Minimum Extent. Accessed October 8, 2026.
• National Snow and Ice Data Center (2026, September 23) Arctic sea ice has reached minimum extent for 2026; Antarctic sea ice maximum most likely reached as well. Accessed October 8, 2026.
• National Snow and Ice Data Center (2026, March 9) Antarctic sea ice extent arrives at a near-average minimum. Accessed October 8, 2026.

As part of the agency’s Inspiration Tour flyover, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will pilot one of three F-5 fighter jets to kick off the New York Jets vs. Cleveland Browns game in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Sunday, Oct. 11.

NASA team members will engage with fans at the agency’s Experience Zone, located at the Jets Tailgate Zone outside the stadium, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT before the game. Fans can learn more about NASA’s return to the Moon under the agency’s Artemis dome, enjoy interactive games, and capture photos with a large, inflatable SLS (Space Launch System) rocket.

Isaacman will be available for limited media interviews during the game. To arrange interviews, please contact Camille Gallo at: camille.m.gallo@nasa.gov or 202-531-8057.

With stops across the nation, NASA’s Inspiration Tour convenes academic, industry, and public sector stakeholders to connect the agency with the people, technologies, and organizations that drive American leadership in space.

The tour will culminate in MAX POWER, a public exposition of American air and space innovation, Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8, on and near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Held in honor of America’s historic 250th anniversary, the multi-day, family-friendly event will showcase the next-generation aircraft, spacecraft, autonomous vehicles, and technologies that will help define the future of transportation in air and space.

For more information about MAX POWER and the agency’s missions, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/maxpower

-end-

Camille Gallo / Jessica Taveau
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
camille.m.gallo@nasa.gov / jessica.c.taveau@nasa.gov

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