Arctic sea ice in summer off Siberia, satellite image. This sea ice is in the Sannikov Strait that connects the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea and lies north of mainland Siberia, passing through the New Siberian Islands. For most of the year, the strait is blocked by sea ice, which starts to melt in the summer, as seen here. Eventually, as the climate warms, it is expected that this strait will be open to shipping, part of the Northeast Passage. This image, from the eastern side of the strait, was obtained on 17 June 2013 with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor on NASA's Landsat 8 satellite.