Here is the final part of my looking back at last year's blog posts (part un and part deux). I might do a post or two on comparing this melting season with previous ones in the coming week, but I can recommend reading through some of last year's blog posts to get a feel for the differences with this year.
I'm also inserting last year's SIE updates as they contain some graphs, animations and general thinking that can come in handy now.
September 4th 2010: SIE update 28: riding the seesaw
September 4th 2010: With the help of Lodger I made a series of animations showing ice transport through Fram Strait and melting/compaction on the Pacific side, the last part being Race to Fram Strait 6. This year I'm making similar animations (Fram Strait and Slush Puppie), but use Uni Bremen sea ice concentration maps instead of those from IJIS.
September 6th 2010: One of the last thoroughly enjoyable highlights (for me) of last year's melting season was the post on the North Hole (and part 2), describing the holes in the ice pack that showed up around the North Pole. We wondered how the producers of extent and area data sets were handling this.
September 9th 2010: SIE update 29: riding the slide
September 13th 2010: Peter Sinclair of Climate Denial Crock of the week-fame made a very good video on Arctic sea ice (as he will this year): Arctic Recovery Crock of the Week. Well worth watching again.
September 15th 2010: SIE update 30: baby, it ain't over 'til it's over
September 19th 2010: We speculated a lot whether The Arm of multiyear ice would survive in the warm waters before the onset of freezing temperatures. Very similar to this year (except that this year there's less multiyear ice in it).
September 19th 2010: SIE update 31: when all is over and done
September 21st 2010: Werther made an excellent CAD image showing low and high concentration compared to 2007. The conclusion was that 2010's minimum would probably have been below of that of 2007 if the winds hadn't spread the ice pack out so much (causing the holes in the interior).
September 22nd 2010: This was a blog post to congratulate Thorleif Thorleifsson and Børge Ousland on being the first human beings to circumnavigate the Arctic: A Passage or Two
On September 25th I went into hibernation. I always do that after rollercoaster rides that last several months.
January 15, 2011: Hudson Bay freezes over 60 days late.
Jan-Mar, 2011: 80N temps reported by DMI.dk are 7 C above normal.
April 2011: New record low volume reported by PIOMAS for the start of the melt season.
In summary, Arctic Sea Ice has behaved as expected in Summer 2011. Naive statistical models anticipated the trend in reduced SIE. No surprise there.
The real action is in Fall/Winter now. Delayed freeze-up and wide-spread double digit surface temp anomalies lead to a thinner, younger ice pack which come Summer melts as expected.
The Arctic death spiral continues... Watch this space!
Posted by: Artful Dodger | September 08, 2011 at 12:04
There might be less hibernating this year, Lodger...
Posted by: Neven | September 08, 2011 at 16:04
Will record-breaking losses of Arctic sea ice reduce the duration of hibernation for Nevens? Might the additional stress of this lead to a decline in the population of Nevens?
[insert cute photo of a baby Neven here]
Please do your part now to help stop global warming, halt the death spiral of sea ice, and save the Nevens.
Posted by: Ned Ward | September 08, 2011 at 16:17
This is not a joke! ;-)
I must say that last year I was completely finished after the melting season, also because I was doing twice as many assignments to save some money for a project. But apparently one gets used to these things.
And as I have told my clients I'll be working a bit less the coming months, I might have the time and energy to do at least one nice post a month.
Posted by: Neven | September 08, 2011 at 17:04
Personally, I think it was the strain of creating that first chart with a spreadsheet that did you in, Neven. Mang, you think there was wood smoke in Siberia last Summer... ;^)
Thanks for all you do, Neven!
Cheers, mate!
Lodger
Posted by: Artful Dodger | September 09, 2011 at 07:12
Yes, creating that first CAPIE chart in Open Office Calc was the coup de grace for me last year. I needed the hibernation time just to recuperate from that one. :-B
Posted by: Neven | September 09, 2011 at 07:23
How's CAPIE anyway at yesterday's standing of ~64% compared to anytime September history? (Having trouble finding a quick link to that now renowned 'state of the arctic' assessment chart :D)
Posted by: Seke Rob | September 09, 2011 at 09:03