There has been a huge increase in the amount of the oldest thickest Arctic sea ice since 2011.
The legend on the maps below shows the age of the ice. Red represents ice five years and older.
End of September, 2011
End of September, 2014
There has been a huge increase in the amount of the oldest thickest Arctic sea ice since 2011.
The legend on the maps below shows the age of the ice. Red represents ice five years and older.
End of September, 2011
End of September, 2014
One would think this would be a reason to celebrate. .. not…
Steven,
If I recall, it has been you that has been discussing the growth of mult-year ice now for at least a couple of years. A while back I tried to search on your site to find the first year you mentioned it; I want to say you first started noting growth of multi-year ice three seasons ago. Add to that Caleb’s observation that Arctic currents appear to have shifted with far less Arctic ice flowing and blowing into the Atlantic, and we have a recipe for continued ice area growth in the Arctic in years ahead. I wonder when PIOMAS will substantively change their tune. I’m not holding my breath.
OK a stupid question, which I probably will regret asking.
Since the ice at the pole doesn’t melt each year, why isn’t the oldest ice concentrated around the pole?
It is all very dynamic. The ice is pushed around by the changing winds, currents and tides. It is constantly moving about and changing, being pushed to pile up in once place while fracturing in others and melting or calving in others and forming new in other locations. It is a system that is constantly in flux.
Thanks.
Since there is no land mass at the pole to hold the ice in place it’s floating and is subject to wind and currents. If you look at any body of water with objects floating in it you will see those objects collect against shoreline areas depending on those forces. They’ll also collect in areas where the winds and currents are slack and will never collect where wind and currents are strong unless there is so much material it can no longer move. Dig up one of the animated ice images that Tony’s posted in the past and you can see how the ice moves around. I was trying to find animated versions of the graphs in this post, but this is all I had time to track down. Notice the movement from lower left to upper right of the mass due to wind and currents.
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/changes-in-arctic-ice-over-the-last-10-days/
Thanks, I will have a search.
Also try:
NASA finally admits it Arctic cyclone in August ‘broke up’ and ‘wreaked havoc’ on sea ice — Reuters reports Arctic storm played ‘key role’ in ice reduction
Lots and Lots of links.
Climate Depot is a project of the think tank CFACT
QV there is sometimes no ice at the pole. It’s no big thing actually. See here.
Example
NOAA Faqs – found 18 November 2013
10. Is it true that the North Pole is now water?
“Recently there have been newspaper articles describing the existence of open water at the North Pole. This situation is infrequent but has been known to occur as the ice is shifted around by winds. In itself, this observation is not meaningful. “
I meet with CFACT Monthly in Minneapolis.where various topics are presented and discussed.
Not all topics are climate related but climate stuff is the predominant topic. The meetings are on the last Monday of the month at 10:00 AM
Pixel count presumably refers to area. The True Believers will say that the ice must be getting thinner so overall the volume has decreased. Is there a measure of volume available?