COP28 Triggers Leap in Arctic Ice

The animation shows remarkable growth of Arctic ice extent just since COP28 began. As noted in the previous Arctic ice post, Hudson Bay (lower right) was a lagging region, but freezing accelerated there. To the north Baffin Bay ice extended. As well, Both Bering and Okhotsk seas (far left) added fast ice on coastlines. In all, half a Wadham, 507k km2 of ice extent was added in just three days.

A Lufthansa aircraft at the snow-covered Munich airport on Saturday. Photograph: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/AP

Coincidently, COP28 also triggered heavy snow bringing chaos to southern Germany causing Munich to suspend flights to anywhere, including Dubai.

The graph below shows the gains in ice extent erasing a brief deficit to average.

MASIE shows a gain of ~0.5M km2 from day 334 to 336 overcoming a brief deficit to average. SII (Sea Ice Index) also rose but is still estimating ice extent 500k km2 lower.

The table below shows the distribution of ice in the Arctic Ocean basins.

Region	2023336	Day 336	2023-Ave.	2007336	2023-2007
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	11113626	11059843	53782	10853632	259993
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1070966	1069301	1665	1054586	16380
(2) Chukchi_Sea	765844	797154	-31311	607874	157970
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1087137	1080765	6372	1023256	63882
(4) Laptev_Sea	897845	897835	9	897845	0
(5) Kara_Sea	812779	796332	16446	829462	-16683
(6) Barents_Sea	350616	259899	90717	222769	127847
(7) Greenland_Sea	711570	538651	172919	541176	170393
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	571757	697517	-125760	755390	-183633
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	854860	853409	1451	852556	2304
(10) Hudson_Bay	553841	636088	-82247	812965	-259124
(11) Central_Arctic	3220281	3198662	21619	3177278	43003
(12) Bering_Sea	82391	154107	-71716	27916	54475
(13) Baltic_Sea	23276	4889	18387	2898	20378
(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk	106202	70731	35471	46377	59826

As shown in the table above, the main deficits to average are in Hudson and Baffin Bays, along with less ice in Bering Sea. Offsetting are surpluses elsewhere, especially in Barents and Greenland seas.