7 August AMSR Sea Ice Imaging - Lots Of Thinning From 80 - 85N, Esp. On E. Siberian Sea Side

[hatrack]

Not an enormous loss by percentage - the most conspicuous drop is down to about 75% of coverage. However, the extent is striking, reaching as it does across most of five degrees of latitude, and it's developed pretty quickly.

Five weeks to go to seasonal minimums. Should be interesting.

http://iup.physik.uni-bremen.de:8084/amsr/arctic_AMSRE_nic.png

[phantom power]

1. Changes are easily visible week to week.

[GliderGuider]

2. Here's a link to a discussion of the same issue on The Oil Drum:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2859#comment-223981

It contains an animated graphic showing the comparison with the coverage on this date last year. The author )apparently a geologist) says:

We're within a few days of setting a modern-observations record low for northern hemisphere sea ice extent; this is dramatic because we still have more than six weeks of typical melt season to go.

I'm actually a little freaked out by this. I've been watching it for a few weeks, but have hesitated to post because it's always dangerous to sound alarmist based on gut feelings and slivers of data.

Regardless of that, I feel fairly comfortable now stating that we have experienced an entirely new mode of sea ice melt in the northern hemisphere this year. For the first time that we've observed, the melt exposed large areas of open ocean while the artic sea was still exposed to summertime light. That is, in all previous years very little open water in the arctic basin itself was exposed until mid august at the earliest. This year, however, vast swaths of of artic ocean waters were open as early as mid July, when the entire ocean is exposed to 24/7, relatively-high-elevation incident light

[phantom power]

3. 24/7.. 90% absorption...

uh oh

[hatrack]

4. Damn! I knew the pack had gone well north early, especially E. Siberian & Chukchi Seas . . .

But . . . damn! That graphic puts it nicely into perspective.

[hatrack]

5. I HATE self-kicks, but GliderGuider's graphic is something you need to see

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2859#comment-223981

[phantom power]

6. That's a looker, alright.

[Dead_Parrot]

7. Ouchie

That's one fucked ice cap. :(

[ramapo]

8. Pretty dramatic

That is a stunning change from last year. There's another graphic in the thread that traces the ice cap over 15-20 years. There were definitely summers where the ice retreated farther north than others but none so dramatic as this.

Much more worrisome that the Brooklyn tornado.

[KingofNewOrleans]

9. Ice destruction vs Ice melt--cool satellite shot

The large area of open water North of Siberia certainly does provide for more absorption of sunlight and thus more ice melt, however it also provides for another means of ice reduction too--Ice destruction via storm and high seas. Six foot seas can do alot of damage crashing against the ice edge. Here's a MODIS Sat shot of a storm currently North of Siberia. The Siberian coast is drawn in along the South edge of the picture, the bright white cloud swirl of the low pressure is obvious and the pale white adjacent to the dark areas (open water) is the ice sheet edge.