Monday, September 08, 2008
Who Are You Going to Believe?
Here is the University of Illinois' chart about the extent of Arctic sea ice.
It seems to say that the extent of the ice is just .3 million square kilometers above last year, which is about a 10% difference.
Yet on the same site, you can compare this day's composite photo from space with last year's composite photo. That's the side by side comparison below. Does it look like so little a difference to you?
Looks more like a 30% difference to me. I've contacted the guy they say to send questions to in order to see what's up. I'll report back, but he's never responded to a question from me yet.
Labels: Arctic Sea Ice Anomaly
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
A Closer Look at the Arctic Ocean
The Cryosphere Today website covers the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans' sea ice and says in the north it's about .6 million square miles below the 20 year normal (as measured since 1979 by satellite). So is that generally less sea ice throughout the Arctic Ocean or is it specifically in one or two areas?
Turns out it's in a few areas with the rest about normal or even above normal (Hudson Bay and the sea between Baffin Island and Greenland have more sea ice than usual). The main areas with less ice are north or east of Siberia and the worst place for sea ice is the Barents Sea, a triangle of ocean between the easternmost part of Norway, Svalbard Island and Novaya Zemlya. That area is .35 million square miles below normal, roughly half of the negative anomaly. Why?
I have no clue.
I do notice that the sea ice graph and the anomaly graph were in synch but are now generally mirror images of one another. What's up with that?
Most of the other graphs don't look like that.
Labels: Arctic Sea Ice Anomaly
