Arctic ice melt update - 06/12/2016

Conditions in the Arctic

Temperatures as high as 28.9°C or 83.9°F over the Mackenzie River close to the Arctic Ocean on June 13, 2016, at location marked by the green circle.

Created by Sam Carana for Arctic-news.blogspot.com

 

 with image fromhttps://earth.nullschool.net/…

From 6/10. Mackenzie river coming in on left side of image. Note the bright green colors coming up in the water along the coast, and just big chunks of ice floating around (thin cirrus clouds interfere a bit with the view). This is actually a perfect environment for phytoplankton growth

Here's a satellite image of the Mackenzie River delta on June 

11, 2016

Comment from Sam Carana (via Facebook)



That's the East Siberian Sea. 

I think the darker color results mainly from the fact that the ice there is rapidly getting thinner, while sea currents are also contributing to the ice getting fractured into ever smaller pieces. 

On the left is Chaunskaya Bay, where the East Siberian Sea is very shallow. The Bay is still covered with very thin ice. Underneath the ice warm water of the Chaun River is flowing into the Arctic Ocean. 

On the right, warm water from the (ice-free) Kolyma River is flowing into the East Siberian Sea

And Roger Caldwell

What's not perfect, however, is that Arctic Ocean phytoplankton is adapted to survive -40C, and as such have evolved to not be able to survive above +10C.