Further analysis of the Arctic ice melt - 08/17

We were never going to see a blue sea 'event' in the sense people commonly think of it but the deterioration of the sea ice is epic and unacknowledged.

I feel that when things start to look like this over much of the central Arctic plateau we can start to talk about a ‘blue sea event’ - enough, possibly, to trigger some of the things Guy McPherson is fearful of.

The disappearance of ice at 80 degrees North

There has been a lot of talk in the past 48 hours of there being no blue sea event (something that is left undefined in social media comments.

However the deterioration of the ice is epic and continues with perhaps another 3 weeks or a month of melt left.

I have decided to look at just one position (80 degrees North, -156 longitude) for comparison.

I do not know what the distances are but it is getting very close to the Pole. It is approximately the same latitude as the norhternmost tip of Greenland. 

You can just make out the area in this photo of the Arctic on the left hand margin of the central Arctic plateau.

At the beginning of July (2/07) you can see that the area is still frozen,

By the 10the July it is just starting to open

And the 27th July

Cloud has been covering the area the bulk of the time

 

But when the cloud lifts you can get a clear idea of the extent of the melt. I would estimate that it is covering many hundreds of kilometers.

This photo is from the 13th August 

Zooming in we can see more clearly

That is the clearest view that we have because since then it has been largely under cloud.

This is the latest photo we have.

Meanwhile it looks as if the area is cooling down a little with about half the area being at freezing.

These are AVERAGE figures.