[Vision2020] PIOMAS Arctic Ice Vol. 6-30-11: Record Lowest Since 1979, Second Year Consecutively

[Paul Rumelhart]

I am, if you'll forgive the word, skeptical of this data.  It may be 
correct, I don't know, but I've seen nothing else that indicates that 
the ice volume would be at a record low right now, with almost three 
months of melt still to come.

For example, I've attached recent and 1-year old arctic sea ice 
thickness and ice concentration maps from the Naval Research Laboratory 
at the Stennis Space Center.  Note that this is climate model data that 
is built from various real-time data sources.  It is not satellite data.

Both the thickness of the ice and the overall ice concentration to my 
amateur eye looks better this year than at this time last year.  I've 
also attached the latest JAXA sea ice extent graph which shows this 
years value at slightly below both the 2010 and 2007 lines, but no where 
near the minimum for the year.

Granted, sea ice extent is different than sea ice thickness which is 
different than sea ice concentration which is different than sea ice 
volume.  I would have to think they are all related, though.  If the sea 
ice volume really did fall by that much, shouldn't we see a 
corresponding drop in at least sea ice concentration and sea ice thickness?

Well, who knows?  It should be fun watching the graphs this year, though.

By the way, have you found a source for Cryosat data?  I've seen plenty 
of articles claiming the data is "freely accessible", but haven't 
actually found it on the web yet.

Paul

On 07/06/2011 03:21 PM, Ted Moffett wrote:
> For the second year consecutively, PIOMAS arctic ice volume has set a
> new record low since the start of the estimations in 1979, and the
> summer season has several more months left.  The arctic ice volume
> indicated by PIOMAS is a more meaningful indicator of the decline in
> Arctic ice than sea ice extent:
>
> http://psc.apl.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/schweiger/ice_volume/BPIOMASIceVolumeAnomalyCurrentV2.png
>
> http://psc.apl.washington.edu/wordpress/research/projects/arctic-sea-ice-volume-anomaly/#
> ------------------------------------------
> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
>
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