To make it more clear what is happening, these images from September 16-18 show the pole hole growing in size. As the sun sets over the Arctic, our visible satellite imagery is also disappearing. Thus the need for microwave imagery to measure the ice.
Cheers Steve that does show it better.
Andy
Funny that there is no source for this cloudy show.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reports on September 15, 2010:
The minimum ice extent was the third-lowest in the satellite record, after 2007 and 2008, and continues the trend of decreasing summer sea ice.
=> http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/