Where is the low extent coming from?

Using Cryosphere Today regions, where is the low extent at present coming from?

GISS April

GISS global temperature anomaly data is out for April. The last 7 months have been above 1degC global anomaly.

Temperatures over the ice: Normal for the new normal

Temperature has been obtained from NCEP/NCAR as timeseries and composites. There is evidence supporting suggestions of melt ponding along the Alaskan coast, but much of the pack is cool/normal for recent years. Click on images to enlarge.

How did Beaufort get in this state?

In comments on an earlier post Iceman raised the question of how Beaufort got in the state it is in. As I wasn't immediately able to answer it off the top of my head I thought I had better look into it.

I'll start with a recap, then go on to examine how Beaufort ended up in such a fragile state.

PIOMAS April 2016

Thanks, as always, to Dr Zhang and the PIOMAS team at the Polar Science Center for making gridded PIOMAS products available to amateurs such as myself. It's early May and April PIOMAS data is out. April is the peak of volume and ice state in April is one of the primary initial conditions that sets the scene for the coming melt season.

Beaufort Starts Early

The 2016 sea ice melt season in the Arctic has started, Beaufort starts early this year, but does this mean it is starting as it means to continue?

The August Extent Loss Oscillation (a belated 2015 update)

In 2014 I posted about an apparent oscillation of August extent loss, I updated this with preliminary data in August 2015, but failed to return to the issue to see how things actually turned out. As this issue has a bearing on the post that follows, and prompted by reading a comment at Neven's blog about claimed cycles in sea ice, I am posting this to update data on last year's August extent loss.

Beaufort Cryosat February

Beaufort has already started to collapse, I will have more about that in a post to follow when I have the time tomorrow. For now, I have amended images from Meereisportal for a close look at Cryosat 2 ice thickness in Beaufort.

More commentary about the recent Cryosat 2 data is available from Neven at the Arctic Sea Ice Blog.