NSIDC pulled a clever trick this year. What they used to call 5+ ice, they now call 4+ ice. They also stopped publishing their ice age graph, most likely because they didn’t want people to see the huge increase in older ice.
Here is their 2013 map and graph. Note that the color grading scheme for age goes up to white for 4+ ice.
And now their 2012 map. White colors used to be called 5+ ice.
It’s all thin rotten decayed scams.
Canadian Ice Service is doing the same thing. Starting this month, ice they previously classified as “Old ice” in their Stage of Development charts is now “Multi-year” ice with no sign of ANY old ice. http://www.ec.gc.ca/glaces-ice/default.asp?lang=En&n=D32C361E-1
Why not just make it all 1+ year old ice … So the Consensus can say “look, there’s less multi-year ice out there” … Change the way records are kept so they can continue to harp on Climate Change!!