Open Northwest Passage. Satellite image of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago taken on the 29th August 2007. The McClure Strait (dark blue at centre left), McClintock Channel (dark blue, centre) and the Parry Channel (dark blue, centre right) are free of the sea ice that would usually be blocking them. This was the first time that the Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, was open since records began. The declining sea ice is due to global warming, the Arctic temperature having risen by 1.7-2.2 degrees Celsius in the past century. Image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite.