Showing posts with label thin spots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thin spots. Show all posts

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Thin Spots developing in Arctic Sea Ice

From the start of 2013, Arctic sea ice extent has roughly followed the same path it did in 2012 when a historic record low was reached, as discussed in a previous post. At the moment, thinner spots are developing in the sea ice, as illustrated by the image below.


These thin spots are developing due to a combination of factors:
  • a cyclone over the Arctic
  • low North Hemisphere snow cover causing more sunlight to be absorbed, rather than reflected back into space
  • warm sea surface temperatures at edges of sea ice, as illustrated by the image below
  • ice thickness is very low, as illustrated by the image further below
NOAA image, click to enlarge
Arctic sea ice volume/extent ratio by Neven (click to enlarge image)
Below, a 30-day Naval Research Laboratory animation illustrating the development of the thinner spots.