Arctic Ice Grows in Movember

Arctic Ice Extents have more than doubled since the Sept. minimum and are now up to 10.4M km2. The last 30% of maximum will take until March, principally because several basins are frozen over and cannot add coverage. To date, Beaufort and CAA (Canadian Archipelago) are full, as are Laptev and East Siberian on the Russian side. Kara is 88% covered and the Central Arctic will add only 2% from here.

In the last nine days of November we can see Chukchi at the top adding ice up to 50% of maximum with Beaufort and East Siberian already frozen. On the left, Baffin and especially Hudson bay are now growing more strongly. On the right is Kara filling in with Barents freezing more slowly.

The graph compares extents over the first 25 days of November.

2017 has reached 10.4M km2, 2007 and 2012 nearly the same, and all are close to the 10 year average of 10.6M km2. 2016 is about 1M km2 behind. At this point MASIE and SII are both tracking the 10-year average, with SII about 200k km2 lower.

The Table below shows where ice is located on day 321 in regions of the Arctic ocean. 10 year average comes from 2007 through 2016 inclusive.

Region	2017329	Day 329 Average	2017-Ave.	2016329	2017-2016
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	10438529	10596102	-157573	9474596	963933
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1070410	1068478	1932	1070445	-35
(2) Chukchi_Sea	516620	793296	-276676	653560	-136940
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1065427	1082091	-16665	1087137	-21711
(4) Laptev_Sea	897845	897451	394	897211	634
(5) Kara_Sea	826360	732408	93952	328154	498207
(6) Barents_Sea	191448	209544	-18096	31173	160275
(7) Greenland_Sea	414638	542031	-127393	419401	-4763
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	701761	637760	64001	651237	50524
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	852553	851808	745	853180	-628
(10) Hudson_Bay	632312	422809	209504	267718	364594
(11) Central_Arctic	3182452	3192004	-9552	3082022	100430

The deficits to average are primarily in Chukchi and Greenland Seas. Surpluses are large in Hudson and Baffin Bays, along with Kara Sea. Compared to last year, Kara, Barents and Hudson Bay all have much greater ice extents.

Footnote

Some people unhappy with the higher amounts of ice extent shown by MASIE continue to claim that Sea Ice Index is the only dataset that can be used. This is false in fact and in logic. Why should anyone accept that the highest quality picture of ice day to day has no shelf life, that one year’s charts can not be compared with another year? Researchers do this analysis, including Walt Meier in charge of Sea Ice Index. That said, I understand his interest in directing people to use his product rather than one he does not control. As I have said before:

MASIE is rigorous, reliable, serves as calibration for satellite products, and uses modern technologies to continue the long and honorable tradition of naval ice charting. More on this at my post Support MASIE Arctic Ice Dataset