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2016 Arctic Sea Ice Thread

Extent has a 10 furlong lead coming into the first turn, volume is neck and neck with the previous triple crown winner, and area is in the feedbag waiting to be brushed.

Looks like a bunch of dominos will fall this year.
 
Arctic sea ice fell to record low for May

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This year could be worst ever for melt as data shows average sea ice extent for last month was more than half a million square kilometres smaller than the previous record of May 2012
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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/08/arctic-sea-ice-falls-to-record-low
 
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No I haven't ...been following more of the crazy surge in renewable power and early commitments to carbon neutral from Norway and others. ICE vehicles banned by 2025 and 25% of Norway cars are electric already!!!

Thanks for the links Ben.
 
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Although sea ice extent is the most often cited metric for commenting on the decline of the polar ice caps, especially that of the Arctic sea ice, there are other ways of looking at this dire indicator of global warming. Here, for instance is a view of the Arctic at the time of the end of the melt season for years 2012 to 2016. What this shows is that while 2016 may have only the second lowest SIE, the actual condition of the remaining ice is very poor, with slush all the way to and including the North Pole.
 
There's nothing official yet, but it seems the Arctic sea ice reached its yearly minimum on September 11th, with 4,144,000 square kilometres, third record low after 2012's (3,387,000 sq.km.) and 2007's (3,987,000 sq.km.).

As for ice volume, we'll have to wait, as the minimum volume usually occurs one week after the minimum extent, but undoubtedly it's at least the second lowest on record (after 2012's) with an almost insignificant chance of being the record lowest (it's just 10% above 2012's daily values and already below 2011's).

Stay tuned.
 
aleCcowaN said:
This year will probably become the third record low in sea ice extent and area, and the second record low in sea ice volume. The Niña -to start in very few weeks- takes care of ice in the western portions of the Arctic.
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Arctic sea ice volume reached its minimum last September 6th with 4,401 cubic kilometres, the third yearly minimum in record after 3,681 km3 during 2012 and close to the 4,302 km3 reached in 2011 but a little less than the minimum reached during 2010.

The "tie" in sea ice extent is a way to deal with the contradiction between systems. Satellites have been replaced and coastal mask algorithms improved so there's a bit of comparing apples with pears in it. For me NSDIC's MASIE is the only one to be trusted and according to them the sea ice extent minimum ranking is:

2012 3.369 million square kilometres
2007 3.986 million square kilometres
2016 4.144 million square kilometres

So I'm happy with my "prediction" born in the fact that systems predicting future developments are increasingly reliable and not in crystal balls.

So, let's keep the hype low and wait for 2017 or more probably 2018 for the next record breaking low.
 
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