It is really in reality deja vu, August 5 2012 had a deep cyclone apparently clearing sea ice very quickly. It was so, but there was pre-conditioning of sea ice, already on the verge of melting completely, with ice column temperatures at or near the melting points of saltier bottom and top fresh water like ice. The Cyclone opened up sea ice much further, stirred the sea water column where there was open water. Now we have a somewhat slower, quasi stationary approx 990 mb large Low North of East Siberian Sea. Sea ice was already broken up before it flayed it further, it will be very interesting to see if there has been residual effects similar with 2012 Aug 5 event:
Cyclone July 26 opened up the ice much further, black water is seen near its centre, a particular place where sea water level rises more than at the far perimeter of the cloud waves. Prior to the cyclone, North of East Siberian sea was already quite open, part of the "Laptev bite" look. What is very interesting is the storm centre black zone.
What is the difference with 2012?
July 26 2012 same area had sea ice far less broken, which eventually melted/compacted at minima. Although the East Siberian sea of 2016 had similar open water to the Laptev sea of 2012.
We can conclude from AMSR2 data and the NASA overviews that this Cyclone had not quite the same effect as August 2012 Low, after all it was not as strong, but did indeed create a great deal more open water, highlighting the fragility of sea ice surely to vanish come mid September, especially if the ratio of open water to sea ice extent was increased. WD July 26,2016
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