Sea Ice News

By Steven Goddard

The Arctic sun has now passed its peak, and is starting its decline towards the horizon over the next 90 days.

All four (JAXA NSIDC DMI NORSEX) ice extent measurements now show 2010 as below 2007. You can see in the modified NSIDC map below that the regions which are below the 30 year mean (marked in red) are all outside of the Arctic Basin and are normally ice free in September, so it is still too early to make any September forecasts based on extent data.

The modified NSIDC map below shows ice loss (in red) during the last nine days. There has been very little change in the Arctic Basin.

The modified NSIDC map below shows ice loss (in red) since early April. According to JAXA, this is about 5 million km².

The modified NSIDC map below shows ice loss (in red) since 2007. According to JAXA, this is about 500,000 km². Areas in green have more ice than 2007.

There has been a strong clockwise rotation of wind in the Beaufort Gyre, which is pulling ice away from the land around the edges of the Beaufort, Chukchi and East Siberian and Laptev Seas.

http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/pips2/archive/mag/2010/mag_2010062200.gif

During the last 10 days, PIPS shows that Arctic Basin ice volume has dropped close to 2007 and 2009 levels. Volume has increased by about 40% since 2008.

Average ice thickness is now the highest for the date during the last five years. This is due to the compression of the ice towards the interior of the Arctic Basin.

Ice offshore of Barrow, Alaska is showing little signs of melt so far.

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http://seaice.alaska.edu/gi/observatories/barrow_sealevel/brw2010/BRW_MBS10_overview_complete.png

The current break up forecast calls for July 5.

http://seaice.alaska.edu/gi/observatories/barrow_breakup

Temperatures north of 80N have been persistently below normal this summer.

http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plots/meanTarchive/meanT_2010.png

There are still no signs of melt at the North Pole, with temperatures running right at the freezing point – and below normal. Normally there has been surface melting for several weeks already.

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/webphotos/noaa2-sml.jpg

Arctic Basin ice generally looks healthier than 20 years ago.

I'm forecasting a summer minimum of 5.5 million km², based on JAXA. i.e. higher than 2009, lower than 2006.

Meanwhile down south, Antarctic ice is well above "normal" close to a record maximum for the date.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.recent.antarctic.png