The image above, supported by the table later on shows that in June water has opened up as usual this time of year. On the North American side, Bering and Okhotsk (bottom left) were already ice-free, so that Chukchi and Beaufort opened (bottom center). Meanwhile, in Baffin Bay and Hudson Bay (bottom right) in has retreated, and given the shallow depth of Hudson Bay it will go ice-free soon.
The picture is more mixed on the Euro-Russian side. East Siberian (left) is nearly normal, with Laptev and Kara down (upper left) slightly below the 12 year average. Barents (upper center) has more ice than usual, and is still hanging onto Svalbard.
The graph below shows the surprising discrepancy between MASIE and SII continued in June, but disappeared by month end.
Note that the NH ice extent 12 year average declined from 11.6M km2 to 9.8M km2 during in the last 30 days. MASIE 2019 shows a slower decline from 10.9M km2 to 9.3M km2. Thus the current deficit to average has reduced during June from 733k km2 to 506k km2, or 5.2% of average. That track is close to 2010 and below other years.
| Region | 2019181 | Day 181 Average | 2019-Ave. | 2010181 | 2019-2010 |
| (0) Northern_Hemisphere | 9318729 | 9824939 | -506210 | 9245692 | 73037 |
| (1) Beaufort_Sea | 766793 | 910839 | -144047 | 861079 | -94286 |
| (2) Chukchi_Sea | 614737 | 721838 | -107101 | 705357 | -90619 |
| (3) East_Siberian_Sea | 1000185 | 1022188 | -22003 | 1040103 | -39918 |
| (4) Laptev_Sea | 600733 | 726543 | -125810 | 693533 | -92800 |
| (5) Kara_Sea | 494380 | 571373 | -76993 | 623806 | -129427 |
| (6) Barents_Sea | 188963 | 116290 | 72674 | 82722 | 106242 |
| (7) Greenland_Sea | 487331 | 509216 | -21885 | 464399 | 22932 |
| (8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence | 431660 | 512914 | -81254 | 416820 | 14840 |
| (9) Canadian_Archipelago | 777670 | 778719 | -1049 | 735649 | 42020 |
| (10) Hudson_Bay | 754193 | 729807 | 24386 | 401862 | 352331 |
| (11) Central_Arctic | 3196694 | 3203485 | -6791 | 3191924 | 4770 |
| (12) Bering_Sea | 1129 | 5122 | -3994 | 594 | 535 |
| (13) Baltic_Sea | 0 | 4 | -4 | 0 | 0 |
| (14) Sea_of_Okhotsk | 3248 | 17144 | -13897 | 26683 | -23435 |
The table shows where the ice is distributed to make the 5.2% defict to average. Beaufort Chukchi and Laptev Seas add up to the NH deficit to average, while Baffin has lost 81k km2 to average.
Illustration by Eleanor Lutz shows Earth’s seasonal climate changes. If played in full screen, the four corners present views from top, bottom and sides.
via Science Matters
July 1, 2019 at 09:40AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 