April Arctic ice volume and thickness set more records

[muriel_volestrangler]

Arctic sea ice volume reached its annual maximum for 2017. The volume maximum occurs one month later than the extent maximum because some areas continue to thicken while the extent begins to recede. Arctic sea ice volume through April 2017 continued substantially below prior years.April 2017 sea ice volume was 20,600 km3 , 1800 km3 below the previous record from April in 2011. The April growth was equivalent to previous years with about 1000 km3 gained during April. The sea ice volume results of anomalously high temperatures throughout the Arctic for November through January discussed here and here. April volume was 37% below the maximum April ice volume in 1979, 25% below the 1979-2016 mean, and more than 1.7 standard deviations below the long term trend line. April sea ice volume follows the overall long term trend (Fig 3) but the departure from the long trend is the second largest in the record. Similar departures occurred in 2011 and 2007. The departure from the long term trend is only surpassed by 1982.

Average ice thickness in April 2017 over the PIOMAS domain is also the lowest on record (Fig 4.) Average ice thickness from PIOMAS is 20cm thinner than the last few years and about 80 cm thinner than in 1980. Note that the interpretation of average ice thickness needs to take into account that only areas with ice thickness greater than 15 cm are included so that years with less total volume can have a greater ice thickness.

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/research/projects/arctic-sea-ice-volume-anomaly/

[Dustlawyer]

1. We are Lemmings.

[OnlinePoker]

2. I've asked before and never got a response...

...why does DMI show the volume as virtually identical to 2016 and about 3000km3 greater than PIOMAS? Which model is more accurate?