Anyone been following the daily arctic sea ice updates, eg at
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ ? To my totally non-expert eye it looks
like the NW passage is fully open (to non-icebreakers I mean) via Devon
island and through, while the NE passage doesn't have far to go with just
part of the East Siberian Sea (and then maybe also the small strait just to
the south of Severnya Zemlya) with residual sea ice cover.

JGD

On Mon, 6 Aug 2012 17:19:09 +0100
"johnd" wrote:

Anyone been following the daily arctic sea ice updates, eg at
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ ? To my totally non-expert eye it
looks like the NW passage is fully open (to non-icebreakers I mean)
via Devon island and through, while the NE passage doesn't have far
to go with just part of the East Siberian Sea (and then maybe also
the small strait just to the south of Severnya Zemlya) with residual
sea ice cover.


The loss of AMSR-E last year has meant we're relying on low-res SSMIS
data so we can't tell yet. The AMSR-2 data is still not available; see
http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de:8084/ssmis/index.html for more info and
different daily representation of the data.

I suspect there are still frequent aerial recces being made over the
Canadian Arctic which would tell us - if only we could see them. They
used to be available by fax fifty years ago so I don't see why they're
not on the internet; perhaps they and I just haven't found them.

If the NW passage isn't open yet, I doubt it will be long before it is
and both passages will be open again this year. Ice extent is still
just less than in 2007 though I don't know whether we'll have a new
record by the end of the summer. Volume is lower then last year and
I'll be surprised if that doesn't continue.
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/wordpr...olume-anomaly/


--
Graham Davis, Bracknell, Berks. E-mail: change 'boy' to 'man'
"A neighbour put his budgerigar in the mincing machine and invented
shredded tweet." - Chic Murray
openSUSE Linux: http://www.opensuse.org/en/

Looks to my untutored eyeball like the NE passage is now completely open,
even from the Bremen data, albeit with a slight diversion via the northern
coast of Alaska for the last leg. Seems to have been a slight acceleration
of the melt over the past 2-3 days. The NW passage just waiting for an
apparently stubborn block to the N coats of Banks Island to clear.

JGD

"johnd" wrote in message
...
Looks to my untutored eyeball like the NE passage is now completely open,
even from the Bremen data, albeit with a slight diversion via the northern
coast of Alaska for the last leg. Seems to have been a slight acceleration
of the melt over the past 2-3 days. The NW passage just waiting for an
apparently stubborn block to the N coats of Banks Island to clear.

Yes that is my take too:
http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de:8084/ss..._SSMIS_nic.png

The ice extent is at a recrord low for this time of year, and if the rate of
melting continues as it has over the last few days then we will see a new
record minimum in September.
http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm

Cheers, Alastair.

"Alastair McDonald" wrote in message
...
The ice extent is at a recrord low for this time of year, and if the rate
of melting continues as it has over the last few days then we will see a
new record minimum in September.

Yes indeed. Be interesting to see if it dips below 4 million km^2 though I
guess a more telling milestone will be the first year that dips below about
3.8 million km^2 (ie less than 50% of the 1980's mean - and taking the
current figures at face value, of course) - perhaps not for a year or two
yet?

JGD

"Graham P Davis" wrote in message
news:20120806194025.7e5f9159@home-1...

The AMSR-2 data is still not available; see
http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de:8084/ssmis/index.html for more info and
different daily representation of the data.


Yes that's an interesting and more detailed representation, which confirms
that the melting is continuing apace, as is normal at this time of year I
guess. What's slightly frustrating is the grey border that seems to be show
up or be applied to much of the coastlines. This can't be ice in most places
(eg Cornwall) but what is it? Too wide to be beaches. Maybe it's just
relatively shallow coastal water (or an artefact of the imaging or artistic
licence)? This border is frustrating because it makes it difficult to see
which Arctic straits are open, which seems to be important because one thing
the map does bring home is that the NW passage especially has apparently to
pass through various relatively narrow straits one way or another through
the Canadian Arctic archipelago. The NE passage seems to be much more open
other than the strait to the south of Severnya Zemlya.

JGD

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:43:39 +0100
"johnd" wrote:


"Graham P Davis" wrote in message
news:20120806194025.7e5f9159@home-1...

The AMSR-2 data is still not available; see
http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de:8084/ssmis/index.html for more info and
different daily representation of the data.


Yes that's an interesting and more detailed representation, which
confirms that the melting is continuing apace, as is normal at this
time of year I guess. What's slightly frustrating is the grey border
that seems to be show up or be applied to much of the coastlines.
This can't be ice in most places (eg Cornwall) but what is it? Too
wide to be beaches. Maybe it's just relatively shallow coastal water
(or an artefact of the imaging or artistic licence)? This border is
frustrating because it makes it difficult to see which Arctic straits
are open, which seems to be important because one thing the map does
bring home is that the NW passage especially has apparently to pass
through various relatively narrow straits one way or another through
the Canadian Arctic archipelago. The NE passage seems to be much more
open other than the strait to the south of Severnya Zemlya.

JGD


The irritating border should go when the AMSR-2 data becomes available.

Melting over the past week or so has proceeded faster than usual.
Possible explanation can be found he
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/20...in-the-arctic/

--
Graham Davis, Bracknell, Berks. E-mail: change 'boy' to 'man'
"A neighbour put his budgerigar in the mincing machine and invented
shredded tweet." - Chic Murray
openSUSE Linux: http://www.opensuse.org/en/

johnd wrote:
"Graham P Davis" wrote in message
news:20120806194025.7e5f9159@home-1...

The AMSR-2 data is still not available; see
http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de:8084/ssmis/index.html for more info and
different daily representation of the data.


Yes that's an interesting and more detailed representation, which
confirms that the melting is continuing apace, as is normal at this
time of year I guess. What's slightly frustrating is the grey border
that seems to be show up or be applied to much of the coastlines.
This can't be ice in most places (eg Cornwall) but what is it? Too
wide to be beaches. Maybe it's just relatively shallow coastal water
(or an artefact of the imaging or artistic licence)? This border is
frustrating because it makes it difficult to see which Arctic straits
are open, which seems to be important because one thing the map does
bring home is that the NW passage especially has apparently to pass
through various relatively narrow straits one way or another through
the Canadian Arctic archipelago. The NE passage seems to be much more
open other than the strait to the south of Severnya Zemlya.
JGD

A quote from Paul Simons' article in yesterday's Times is interesting in
this context:

"Usually during the summer the jet stream lies much further north of the UK,
out of harm's way. The question is why has it slipped so far south this
summer?. One reason was the lack of snow in northern Russia and Canada last
winter, which quickly melted away in spring and upset major weather
patterns. The Arctic sea ice is also under suspicion, and this week
scientists at University College London revealed from satellite pictures
that the loss of Arctic sea ice in the summer is worse than previously
thought. In fact, the ice is melting so rapidly that it could completely
disappear for a brief spell in summer by the end of the decade."

Roger

There is an article here on the Arctic sea ice:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19244895
Scientists at UCL are now predicting that the Arctic will be ice free in
summer by around 2020.

Cheers, Alastair.

On Monday, 6 August 2012 17:19:09 UTC+1, johnd wrote:
Anyone been following the daily arctic sea ice updates, eg at

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ ? To my totally non-expert eye it looks

like the NW passage is fully open (to non-icebreakers I mean) via Devon

island and through, while the NE passage doesn't have far to go with just

part of the East Siberian Sea (and then maybe also the small strait just to

the south of Severnya Zemlya) with residual sea ice cover.



JGD

I always thought that NH lower latitudal jet streams were indicative of the Little Ice Age period