8/28 University Of Bremen Arctic Imagery - Large Areas Of 0% Coverage Opening W/I 300 Miles Of Pole

[hatrack]

Not enormous, but maybe 15-20 miles on a side, right around 170-175W, with a fair number of smaller ice-free pockets between 150 and 160W. Fascinating.

On edit: fixed headline typo.

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

[GliderGuider]

1. Guardian: North-West Passage is now plain sailing

North-West Passage is now plain sailing

The North-West Passage – the sea route running along the Arctic coastline of North America, normally perilously clogged with thick ice – is nearly ice-free for the first time since records began.

"Since August 21 the North-West Passage is open to navigation. This is the first time that it happens," Nalan Koc, head of the Norwegian Polar Institute's climate change programme, told reporters in Longyearbyen, a town in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

"The Arctic ice sheet currently extends on 4.9m square kilometres. In September 2005 it measured 5.3m square kilometers."

Koc was quoting research from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre, where scientists monitor the surface of the Arctic ice sheet at regular intervals. Last week they noted "the imminent opening" of the North-West Passage.

"Analysts confirm that the passage is almost completely clear and that the region is more open than it has ever been since the advent of routine monitoring in 1972," they said in research conclusions published on the centre's website.

[lapfog_1]

2. North Pole to be ice free within my lifetime?

Another 30 years?

Looks like the fabled northwest passage is nearly open now.