The image is an animation of MASIE ice charts over the last 16 days from Nov. 21 to yesterday, Dec. 7, 2019. At the top is Kara Sea icing, along with Barents, both higher than the 12 year average at this time. On the left Laptev and East Siberian have filled with ice. Chukchi on the bottom left was mostly water, but in the last two weeks added 250k km2 up to 742k km2, now 77% of March maximum. Bottom center shows Beaufort Sea and CAA filled with ice. On the right, Hudson Bay is making great progress freezing from its west coast inward, tripling in two weeks up to 816k km2, 65% of March max.
MASIE daily results for mid November to yesterday show 2019 ice recovering steadily, reducing the deficit to average.
Because several seas are already maxed out, Arctic ice extent recovery slows down in this period, going on average (2007 through 2018 inclusive) from 10M km2 to 12.3M km2. 2019 was as much as 600k km2 below average a week ago, but has now halved that deficit, with the accelerating freezing of shallow Hudson Bay. Both MASIE and SII 2019 tracks are matching 2018, converging on the 12 year average, and ahead of both 2016 and 2007.
The table for day 341 shows distribution of ice across the regions making up the Arctic ocean.
| Region | 2019341 | Day 341 Average | 2019-Ave. | 2007341 | 2019-2007 |
| (0) Northern_Hemisphere | 11291517 | 11589573 | -298056 | 10895496 | 396021 |
| (1) Beaufort_Sea | 1070655 | 1069314 | 1341 | 1058293 | 12362 |
| (2) Chukchi_Sea | 742243 | 858135 | -115892 | 631443 | 110801 |
| (3) East_Siberian_Sea | 1084944 | 1082660 | 2284 | 1042607 | 42337 |
| (4) Laptev_Sea | 897845 | 897834 | 10 | 897845 | 0 |
| (5) Kara_Sea | 930183 | 821052 | 109132 | 811361 | 118822 |
| (6) Barents_Sea | 356907 | 294913 | 61995 | 216824 | 140083 |
| (7) Greenland_Sea | 504346 | 560612 | -56266 | 488047 | 16300 |
| (8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence | 606755 | 785677 | -178922 | 744348 | -137593 |
| (9) Canadian_Archipelago | 854282 | 853080 | 1202 | 852556 | 1726 |
| (10) Hudson_Bay | 816467 | 850137 | -33669 | 894568 | -78101 |
| (11) Central_Arctic | 3211488 | 3197839 | 13649 | 3176298 | 35190 |
| (12) Bering_Sea | 123482 | 190201 | -66719 | 39832 | 83650 |
| (13) Baltic_Sea | 5497 | 6999 | -1502 | 2898 | 2599 |
| (14) Sea_of_Okhotsk | 84415 | 115149 | -30734 | 37290 | 47125 |
Presently 2019 ice extent according to MASIE is 298k km2 (2.6%) below the 12 year average and 400k km2 more than 2007. Most of the deficit to average is in Chukchi Sea, along with Baffin and Hudson Bays a little late refreezing this year. The Pacific Bering and Okhotsk seas have barely started with ice. Other places are close to normal, with Kara and Barents Seas showing surpluses.

For context, note that the average maximum has been 15M, so on average the extent shrinks to 30% of the March high before growing back the following winter.

Reblogged this on Climate Collections.
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