As it says on the pictures, the colors represent sea ice concentrations. If pictures are no good, how about some graphs from the same website: Southern Hemispheric Ice area: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/current.area.south.jpg Northern Hemispheric Ice area: http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/current.area.jpg these graphs are only from 1979-Present but you will see how ice melts and regrows, its cyclical. You will also note in the northern hemisphere from 2004-2007 the number dropped and then in 2008-2009 is went up, this is normal, not AGW.