All that Remains:
In Memory of Ice

Competition
Copernicus Marine Service DataViz Challenge 2026

Year
2026

The challenge was to make 47 years of Arctic data felt, not just seen. Sea ice loss is a well-documented phenomenon — the numbers are widely reported — but scientific familiarity does not always translate into comprehension.

  • Data visualisation poster showing 47 years of Arctic sea ice extent and ocean surface temperature, 1979–2025

  • Close-up of data grid showing individual year cells, each encoding September sea ice extent and surface temperature anomaly from 1979 to 2012

  • Lower half of poster showing recent years 2021–2025, the colour legend, and a circular Arctic map comparing 1979 and 2025 sea ice extent

  • Circular Arctic map showing the 1979 sea ice boundary overlaid on the 2025 extent, illustrating nearly five decades of ice retreat

  • Detail of the earliest years in the grid, 1979 to 1988, showing ice-pale cells and the beginning of the data record

All that Remains: In Memory of Ice is an entry for the Copernicus Marine Service DataViz Challenge 2026 — an open call inviting designers and data specialists to transform Copernicus Marine open data into compelling visual stories about the ocean. The poster visualises 47 years of Arctic sea ice extent alongside sea surface temperature anomaly, drawing on satellite and reanalysis data spanning 1979 to 2025.

Challenge:
The challenge was to make 47 years of Arctic data felt, not just seen. Sea ice loss is a well-documented phenomenon but scientific familiarity does not always translate into comprehension. The objective was to find a form that held the full scope of the record while remaining accessible, immediate, and emotionally legible to a general audience.

Approach:
The poster uses a grid of 47 squares — one for each September since 1979, when Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum and satellite records began. Each cell is coloured by extent as a percentage of the 1979 baseline, shifting from white to deep ocean blue as the ice retreats. A small dot in each cell encodes the sea surface temperature anomaly for that year, moving from cool blue to amber as the ocean warms. A map in the background shows the 1979 and 2025 extents side by side, anchoring the numbers in geography.

Beauty is used here as a rhetorical device. The ice palette, the atmospheric photograph, the slow shift from white to open ocean are asking the viewer to feel something before they understand it. The grid is quiet and understated; that restraint is deliberate. The story the data shows is frightening in its simplicity. It doesn't need embellishment.

Data:
Generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information (CMEMS), Marine Data Store.

Sea ice extent 1979–1992: DOI 10.24381/cds.3cd8b812
Sea ice extent 1993–2024: DOI 10.48670/mds-00336
Sea ice extent 2025: C3S/ECMWF, EUMETSAT OSI SAF Sea Ice Index v2.3. climate.copernicus.eu/sea-ice-cover-september-2025
Sea & ice surface temperature 1982–2024: DOI 10.48670/mds-00353

Output:
One A3 poster, submitted to the Copernicus Marine Service DataViz Challenge 2026. Judging pending.

Visualisation / Communication design / Data-informed visual communication

Beauty is used here as a rhetorical device. The ice palette, the atmospheric photograph, the slow shift from white to open ocean are asking the viewer to feel something before they understand it. The grid is quiet and understated — and that restraint is deliberate. The story the data shows is frightening in its simplicity. It doesn't need embellishment.

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