From thin to thinner, and the new January Arctic Ocean sea ice look

 ~Nothing is stopping the great Arctic Ocean sea ice transformations

~One photo is like taken from another Polar planet

The first shot in this loop, is Near North Pole 180 degree meridian January 5 2026 RADARSAT sar image.  It looks like the ice has had a great extent minimum.  The next 2 are North of Greenland, they look like the sea ice is moving fast leaving wide open water leads.  The 4th shot appears like from out of this world, North of Franz Josef  Island,  likely very thin ice with hardly any snow on it.  The 4th is your viewing anchor, it has a white streak at 60 degree angle.  2025 minimum extent was 10th place tied with 2008 and 2010. But I don't recall January 2009 and 2010 sea ice looking like this at all, they had more snow and less leads.  The pictorial difference suggests much thinner ice in 2026.  Sea ice extent numbers may be misleading,  the warming did not stop, rather the great North Pacific sea surface temperature heat blob dominated and dominates again, literally cancelling out what deep cooling a

La Nina can do (usually favouring more accretion in winter).   NOAA sea surface temperature, the more of the same, except,  La-Nina should have triggered a massive cooling during the long Arctic night.  Instead North Baffin and environs have had rain, in the High Arctic.  Such is fruition of the warming predicted in the 1980's and the new look is unsettling even though it was expected. WD January 5, 2026