Tasboy

Not on a daily basis. A daily extent anomaly (from 1981-2010 climatology) of 2.2 million square kms was recorded on 21 Dec 2007. See: http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/seaice/gsfc_sh_extent_anom.html The current daily anomaly is 1.4 million square kms (see http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/seaice/sea_ice_table_extent.html for the data).

Um, how do you come to this value? For Antarctica: 2014 annual day maximum = 19.58 million square kms (30 September) 1980 annual day maximum = 19.09 million square kms (23 September)

Just a message about NSIDC updating their data... NSIDC have updated their January-September 2013 Southern Hemisphere sea ice concentrations (from "near-real-time" to "final") and some of the 2013 records have changed marginally. New sea ice extent maximum was achieved on 30 Sep 2013 (previously 1 Oct 2013 with near-real-time data), and has increased ever so slightly from the near-real-time value. Compare: - http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/seaice/sea_ice_table_extent.html with - http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/seaice/sea_ice_table_extent_old.html Edit... Ok, I've just noticed that the old sea ice table has been overwritten by the new one. A quirk of our web setup I'm afraid. Sorry.

The current sea ice AREA is even more impressive. Predominantly stemming from the Weddell Sea where there have been anomalously cold SSTs.

Yes, GW, sea ice in the Weddell has well and truly started to retreat. However, total (net) sea ice is still close to record levels for this time of the year and coastal exposure (http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/seaice/gsfc_sh_coastal_exposure.html) is also. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly things can happen down there. Have a look at the sea ice just to the west of the Ross Sea - about 150E to 180E (http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/seaice/gsfc_daily_maps.html). Flick back to the 22nd of December 2013 and move forward a few days. Notice how quickly the one cyclonic event can impact on what was highly concentrated sea ice in this region. And despite the (relative) cold SSTs in that region (http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/sst/reynolds_antarctic.html) it didn't recover. I hope things are well there in the soggy UK.

It's not a Bootstrap issue. NASA Team (independent from Bootstrap) is also showing the highest ever summertime area and extent for Antarctica: http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/seaice/sea_ice_table_extent.html http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/seaice/sea_ice_table_area.html Now, I wonder what's causing that?

That's a good article knocker. But I often wonder whether there is still too much focus on the net (total) sea ice coverage (for Antarctica in particular) than in the very distinct (and statistically significant) regional changes in concentration and seasonality. This is particularly so in consumer press.

Nice. There will be more on this at the next IGS sea ice conference in March 2014 - Hobart.

A couple of nice Nature articles (paper and letter) that are worth looking at: - http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7484/full/nature12945.html - http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7484/full/505491a.html Some work suggesting a link between warming of the north and tropical Atlantic and changes in the Antarctic.

Yes, still at record highs of area and extent (for this time of the year). Just amazing!

Thank you for the link to the paper. I hadn't come across it and now I'm looking forward to reading it. In the past I've calculated trends from both Bootstrap and GSFC (friendly competitors) and both show very similar trends, spatially and temporally. See: http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/seaice/hovmoller_trends.html When I get a spare moment I'll update those trend plots to include data up until the end of 2012. Just reading the abstract from that paper made me a little concerned. The part-sentence "...rather than a physical increase in the rate of ice advance" is rather confusing. The term "ice advance" is most commonly used in discussion of sea ice seasonality, rather than long term trend. Anyway, if there is an error in the data I'm glad someone has picked it up. We need good quality data to know what is happening. Is anyone on this discussion list going to the sea ice conference in March (Hobart)? Thanks again

Hello. I'm new here. I have recently updated the SSTa maps around Antarctica to something that is a little more presentable. They are here: http://www.cawcr.gov.au/staff/preid/sst/reynolds_antarctic.html There is a slight change in this analysis as to what was shown until recently. The old shaded grey area (previously representing sea ice) has been replaced with monthly average GSFC near-real-time sea ice concentration data. And the anomalies of SST are now based on the 1981-2010 climatology (where previously they were based on 1971-2000). Is it just me or are the decades slipping by very quickly? Anyway, these might help you in your discussion. Thanks, Tasboy