The melt season is under way, and ice extents are shrinking in the usual places: Barents, Bering, Baffin Bay and Okhotsk. Nothing much is happening elsewhere.
As of day 2016 106 | km2 max lost | % loss sea max |
(0) Northern_Hemisphere | 1039707 | 6.9% |
(1) Beaufort_Sea | 5246 | 0.5% |
(2) Chukchi_Sea | 949 | 0.1% |
(3) East_Siberian_Sea | 0 | 0.0% |
(4) Laptev_Sea | 0 | 0.0% |
(5) Kara_Sea | 9892 | 1.1% |
(6) Barents_Sea | 141054 | 23.5% |
(7) Greenland_Sea | 0 | 0.0% |
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence | 370444 | 22.5% |
(9) Canadian_Archipelago | 2532 | 0.3% |
(10) Hudson_Bay | 2945 | 0.2% |
(11) Central_Arctic | 8171 | 0.3% |
(12) Bering_Sea | 144767 | 18.8% |
(13) Baltic_Sea | 75572 | 77.4% |
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk | 596646 | 45.6% |
(15) Yellow_Sea | 55182 | 100.0% |
(16) Cook_Inlet | 5150 | 100.0% |
It should be noted that Greenland Sea set a new max yesterday, and Central Arctic has risen lately near to its max on January 6. Those seas are more likely to sustain ice extent through the September minimum.
The graph of MASIE data shows 2016 is virtually tied with 2015 and both are below the ten-year average. SII started to be unreliable after day 97.
Looking at specific seas comparing this year and last:
Ice Extents | 2015 | 2016 | Ice Extent |
Region | 2015106 | 2016106 | km2 Diff. |
(0) Northern_Hemisphere | 14049007 | 14037892 | -11115 |
(1) Beaufort_Sea | 1070445 | 1065199 | -5246 |
(2) Chukchi_Sea | 966006 | 965040 | -966 |
(3) East_Siberian_Sea | 1087137 | 1087120 | -17 |
(4) Laptev_Sea | 897845 | 897809 | -36 |
(5) Kara_Sea | 918774 | 925096 | 6323 |
(6) Barents_Sea | 391374 | 458325 | 66951 |
(7) Greenland_Sea | 579909 | 659712 | 79804 |
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence | 1570273 | 1274139 | -296134 |
(9) Canadian_Archipelago | 853214 | 850646 | -2568 |
(10) Hudson_Bay | 1258284 | 1257926 | -358 |
(11) Central_Arctic | 3219523 | 3237378 | 17855 |
(12) Bering_Sea | 649827 | 623466 | -26361 |
(13) Baltic_Sea | 9568 | 22011 | 12443 |
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk | 574873 | 712050 | 137177 |
Clearly the main difference in 2016 is more rapid melting in Baffin Bay, and Bering Sea down slightly. Many seas are similar, and some are higher including Barents, Greenland and Okhotsk (a lot).
Summary:
Fasten your seat belts–Arctic melt season is underway. Alarmists are rooting for more water, less ice, thinking that proves fossil fuels are warming the planet (it doesn’t). Normal people figure some ice loss is a good thing, because it means the next ice age is another year further away. Too much ice loss is bad because it may lead ignorant politicians to make stupid energy policies.
Anyway, the melt season is always entertaining and unpredictable, with unforeseen weather events overturning expected results. Stay tuned.
Note:
On another thread I was asked about some recent scary reports about Greenland’s ice sheet. Since that is land ice, it is not included in sea ice measurements. There is a balanced and informative article on DMI’s observations:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0414/Greenland-s-early-ice-melt-breaks-records.-What-s-behind-the-thaw
They refer to extent of 1 mm melting of the surface, and note an event in 2012 where 95% of the sheet had 1 mm or more melt water. Snow fall accumulates into ice, and also as the sheet grows, there is some calving of the surplus, also resulting in losses, but not in reducing the total ice.
I am skeptical of alarms about Greenland, as I posted in Greenland is Melting. Really?
The point is, Greenland ice sheet is also dynamic, meaning there is annually both ice melting and ice forming; the net is what matters.
It’s amazing that many people are so isolated from the the natural world that natural processes are alarming. Ice melts in the Spring! Who’d a thunk it?
The Earth’s surface temperature has been gradually increasing for the past 15,000 years (this time around). Sea level has been gradually rising for the last 15,000 years. How can anyone suspect that reducing human CO2 production ( a naturally occurring and essential component of the atmosphere) would reverse or even stop these naturally occurring processes that predate human CO2 production by millions of years?
“Man is the only animal that blushes… or needs to.” Mark twain
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