Polar Ice

[Devonian]

Here's an interesting site for monitoring the Arctic ice.

And another reports on ice discharge down the Nares Strait.

[BornFromTheVoid]

Arctic ice extent for 2010 is still moving further below the other years. We are now over 260,000km2 below the next lowest year, 2005.

So far this month we've lost just about 590,000km2, more than any other month on the IJIS series, and that's after being bottom of the pack to start the month. The closest to us is 2008 at about 580,000km2, and the 2003-2009 average is 444,150km2.

[4wd]

Interesting comparison to 1990.

http://climateinsiders.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/uiucjune91990vs2010.png

More open water in the Arctic Basin, and lower ice concentration 20 years ago.

[stewfox]

Here's an interesting site for monitoring the Arctic ice.

And another reports on ice discharge down the Nares Strait.

Many thanks for providing these links

I find the whole subject fascinating beyond the IJIS figures

[Gray-Wolf]

I'd posted the 'missing ice arches' up earlier in the year but it's good to now see the results of the spring and compare. Was this not the guy who reckoned you'd be able to sail around Greenland this year?

The loss of the big ,thick, old perennial means that such 'backstops' are now absent from the arctic. They were the 'stable door' across both Nares and Fram (with Fram it's a little more complex but the same requisits).

[songster]

Interesting comparison to 1990.

http://climateinside...91990vs2010.png

More open water in the Arctic Basin, and lower ice concentration 20 years ago.

I suspect there is something very wrong with the Cryosphere Today thumbnail pics used for this comparison (and for the mobile version of their site). They just don't seem to be remotely compatible with the high resolution pictures posted on their front page. Note that there's a difference in the mapping from colour -> extent for the main picture and the thumbnail version: the main pic uses a "high contrast" mapping where orange/yellow colours kick in at 85-90% concentration, while the thumbnail apparently uses a linear mapping where everything from 80% upwards is coloured magenta. This in itself is not necessarily misleading, however it very much looks to me as though archive thumbnails such as the 1990 one you link to are using the high contrast colour map. The transition app between the two maps appears to take place around a year ago

Is anyone here in contact with the site admins, and can you ask them to confirm whether there is any issue with the colour mapping for the current / archive thumbnail maps?