Velocity driven sea ice, apparent slow incremental melting is about to change suddenly

  Beaufort sea,  there was more open water a while back,  sea ice is constantly replenished until it becomes too scattered which evidently is demonstrated here with JAXA extent June 28,30 and July 1 (the darkest sketch).  Eventually the ice will melt further as it disperses,  it is surely a most effective way of melting sea ice but takes more time to show.     Western entrance of the Northwest passage will show very few clues about this if observed from Banks Island Canada.  Basically one static sheet of sea ice reflects more light than broken up ice pack.  Of course a more static sheet would allow an un-intruded area of sea water to warm further,  but the melting goes slow at the main pack shore area. Here we have sea water warming up deep within the pack core.  As this animation demonstrates,  eventually a greater deal of the loose pack will be infiltrated by warmed surface water unmixed by winds.  WD July 2 2018

Dark Bering sea ice trap, super melting

~While we contemplate the bigger picture,  apparently more sea ice than 2012?

~Whilst Beaufort sea gets flooded with rapidly moving sea ice

~A giant melt machine is in place

  Whilst summer in progress, already forgotten last winter Bering Strait lack of sea ice has already started a melt factory:

Bering Strait 2018 has much more open water than 2012,  2018 has much much faster Gyre current than 2012,  the combination is doom for sea ice at that location:

June 21 to July 1 2018 rapid sea ice melt in progress,  the gyre sends its badly broken up sea ice  over warmed up waters from the left (Alaska),  on its way clockwise it melts over more ancient warmer water,  leaving but open water in its wake.  WD July 1,2018

Formula 1 Arctic Gyre: 48 nautical miles in 7 days

North of Beaufort Sea June 15 to June 27 2018,  we look at the biggest pan of ice from June 20 to 27 moving nearly at 7 nautical miles a day due West which crashes sea ice up Alaska's Arctic coast.  The amount of sea ice scattering is quite remarkable, its self inflicted  crushing to mush does not show up as a lessening of sea ice extent.... Yet....

     As soon as there is a break in the contrarian winds,  the Gyre current takes up it's true form  ,  we also note that on this picture above,  extent as likely stayed the same or increased,  despite no freezing at all,  in fact due to temperatures there should have been a substantial decrease.   The outdated standard concept of 15% extent rule was not designed for this reality,  and no authority measuring sea ice  has adjusted to the new reality of thinner ice spreading out more vigorously. WD July 1, 2018 

2012-2018 What is the difference? Over all sea ice is thinner

~After all first melt was earliest in history
~Sea ice snow cover was thicker in many Arctic quadrants
~How to judge with perfect hindsight


   With respect to sea ice over all thinness,  we can recognize by how easy it breaks up during the melting season.  None better place than Lancaster Sound:

June 22 2012-13-14-15-16-17 and 2018,  we note with great interest 2012, the year with the greatest sea ice melt in history, with irony,  had the thickest sea ice in Lancaster sound,  sea ice which survived well beyond July:

   How does the greatest melt in history have the thickest most persistent sea ice here?   It simply was a matter of the gradual degradation of sea ice year by year...    Which is part and parcel with the ongoing thinning of sea ice process,  therefore since 2012,  the overall sea ice of a huge area of the Arctic has had less volume even with similar extent,  namely from two processes,  more surface snow and warmer temperatures.  At Lancaster Sound, the winter of 2018 had large positive temperature anomalies until mid February.

June 15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22.  Not long ago on June 15 2018,  sea ice in Lancaster appeared rock solid but was in fact very fragile, extent of roughly 50,000 km2 sea ice is currently in the process of disappearing in a matter of a few days.

   July 3 2012,  more sturdy and strong than 2018,  appeared very similar to 2018 June 15:

June 15 2018 looked solid, but undeniably thinner than 2012 which really broke up nearly a month later.:

Amazing irony to find sea ice so resilient during the year with greatest melt in history.  But Arctic sea ice loss of volume process never stopped since

     Hindsight being 20/20 we can study every location having rapidly disintegrating sea ice by surmising the strong possibility that it was even thinner than thought or measured. WD June 23, 2018  

2018 Shake and Bake sea ice

~Huge difference between 2012 and 2018 is sea ice velocity
~2018 Beaufort sea ice is still moving very fast
~This of course distorts 2018 extent numbers until much further melting likely requiring less solar energy.

 June 14 to 22 2012,  note the rather unison movement of the sea ice towards land.

As opposed to 2018 same period,  with strong clockwise motion.  Note encroaching broken up sea ice over the already exposed dark sea water next to shore.  This obviously increased extent all while there was no new ice made.  This exposes the problem of the 15% extent rule,  largely dedicated for a long gone Arctic Ocean ice architecture which did not collapse from within.

    Extent wise 2012 appears to have more open water but 2018 has far more surface water within the main sea ice body.  Greater motion adds to extent as well,  but also pulverizes the sea ice pans more.  The difference here between 12 and 18 will be made more apparent when greater melting continues,  it seems obvious that one year had less intra collisions (2012) than the other (2018).  This is the difference to consider,  a more fluid pack interspersed with water is also more capable in dispersing sea ice in the wider open zones,  in effect increasing apparent extent numbers,  until what would eventually appear to be a near spontaneous melt down,  apparently sudden from all the crushing action transforming  uniformly reflecting solar forcing vast sea ice canopy to a partial pulverized slushy mix.

Consider June 22 2013

    We know the long term results from  this kind of ice structure,  it will lead to lesser melting come sea ice minima.   This is not the case in 2018 and was not so for 2012.

now consider 2102 August 1 before the great cyclone of August 5

    Sea ice largely melted in place,  unlike 2018 which is already broken up.   It is now a matter of cloud coverage (which dominated in 2013),  if similarly less as of 2012 season,  2018 has a good chance of surpassing the all time lowest extent record.    But clouds should persist till beginning of August,  again mimicking since 2012 a new summer cloud-scape caused by thinner sea ice and a different circulatory system.

WD June 22, 2018

Speed of 2018 Beaufort sea ice velocity twice as fast as 2012 at peak of Gyre boosting by presence of very long lasting Anticyclone over it

 2018 June 1 to 9  Beaufort sea ice speed , the biggest pan amongst open water  mid extreme left,  is 12.5 nautical miles  to the West .  It disintegrated on June 9

2012 June 1-9 bullet shaped ice pan moved 5.6 nautical miles a day.

    Peak 2018 Gyre sea ice speed before switchover was extremely bad for sea ice,  it slowed to a third  next 7 days because of Cyclonic presence over the Arctic Ocean Gyre,  still very impressive velocity,  25 % less than 2012 during the same period,  it means that when the cyclones weaken or disappear the speeds would rival or exceed 2012 again,  implying a similar 2012 melt is in the cards.  WD June 18 2018

The current green line, the border between thin and thicker sea ice

~Obviously, top of snow melts more when over thinner sea ice
~Let's take a look

 First we find ESA Maxima picture of the icescape.

Then we look at latest NASA EOSDIS greening of Arctic sea ice:

   With June 2 to 15 2018 animation we can clearly define deep greening zones from the colder highly reflective top white surface ....

   It seems all the Arctic Ocean changed colour, however basically where there is greater surface melting there is a stronger greening,  caused by water ponds, closely outlining the thicker sea ice areas. Ice having a colder core temperature allows top of snow to further resist melting surface temperatures,  top of snow temperature is a reflection of sea ice core minimum.   We can see here the rough outline of beginning of August open water limits,  deeply influenced by thick ice in great part created by Gyre circulation compaction.

2012 to 2018 comparison

     At same June 15 date, 2012 sea ice melt was stronger in the Beaufort,  but 2018 Bering Sea open water is much more prominent:

    Along  North of Russia 2018 has a greater ongoing melt ,  despite 2012 and 18 deeper greening being similar,  but with 18 having more open water,  one must factor the clouds as having an impact over true colours.    2012 can be recognized by next to Wrangle Island open spot.

WD June 17 2018

Sea ice delusions by thick snow carpet, crystals of illusions

~Whether viewed close by  or from space,  sometimes thin sea ice looks much thicker

Kara sea ice is disintegrating rapidly not only because the sun is melting it like crazy, but rather a mix of ripe conditions,  namely its ice is  mostly very thin,  especially with a lot of snow on it,  but winds and current were not able to blow it away until today,  so thin ice is not as fragile as thought and can easily be broken all at once, not especially detectable from close or afar,  even from space, especially with snow layers .    Only Inuit hunters are best at detecting, because there is a hundred words for snow in Inuktitut the language of the Arctic, snow surface structures may define what it covers.  (NASA EOSDIS June 1-8 2018).  

Other side of the Pole in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago,  April 2 to 9 2018,  a massive chunk of ice disintegrated at the entrance of the Northwest passage, Lancaster Sound,   quite unusual to see Lancaster filled with apparently solid sea ice,  a few times in the past ,  during the coldest years it did so,  the last severe Lancaster Sound full coverage had thicker sea ice surviving till mid July 1987.    2018 is not 1987,  has illusions of such,  February March 2018 had very cold favorable for rapid new sea ice formation,  I estimate most of Lancaster sea ice to be lesser than 80 cm though  ,  there is a lot of snow on it,  giving the impression of thick sea ice,  this snow reduced accretion. But here is the illusion which will unravel when the structure of compacted hard snow gets pummelled by warm sublimation and under snow melting,  along with tidal and winds severe stresses,  large chunks of Lancaster ice will disappear in a matter of a few days.  Cohesion of thin sea ice is remarkable,  but ultimately fails in apparent massive extent events.   

     There is also the illusion of sea ice extent itself,  we note 2012 amongst this 2010-2018 June 9 animation,  2012 the year having the greatest melt on record,  had on its June 9  the most Lancaster Sound sea ice of all.    It is important to judge sea ice with a context of complications, all encompassing measures,  winds, tides, current,  momentum,  lead structures, architectural layouts , snow cover and temperatures must be considered.   If for instance Kara sea South of Novaya Zemlya Island has persistent winds compacting thinner sea ice in its pocket,  its ice would appear thick till favorable conditions would vanish it out of existence.  This disintegration rapidity factor must be considered chunk by massive chunk,  although some parts of ice survives does not mean its adjoining ice is different.    One main reason why thinner sea ice may survive longer is that it is smooth on top, the winds glide over with lesser friction. WD June 13, 2018

Arctic Ocean circulation Switchover occurred as expected in late April projection...

~Temperature is key ,  now Arctic Cyclones are colder than High pressures.

CMC June 12 2018,  with a High now over Baffin and a low over the Arctic Ocean Gyre,    in between is the CTNP vortex,   the pressure scene has SWITCHED ,  offering some hope for sea ice with extra cloud cover.

Further a study:

What separates the High from the Low is a cold upper air zone not measured in a significant density  grid manner.  700 mb temperature and pressure heights CMC June 12, 2018 1200 UTC.

   What remains is the possibility of an Arctic Dipole,  which is a rare event at this time of great melting.      The possibility is there but requires a High over Alaska which may venture North. Mean time we must judge how fragile sea ice is by its velocity:

       Impressive speeds of sea ice drift makes for a great melt,  it is fortunately the source of open water.  Fog and cloud source at near 0 C temperatures.    WD June 12, 2018