Snow is retreating from the Alaska.s landscape, and the Bering Strait, which separates Alaskaç—´ Seward Peninsula (center) from Siberia, is mostly free of ice in this MODIS image from May 22, 2002. Sea ice in the Kotzebue Sound (north of Seward Peninsula) has thinned considerably and now appears sky blue, as the blue reflection of the water shows through from the Sea ice is retreating northward into the Chukchi Sea.