The National Snow & Ice Data Center, a unit of NOAA, keeps constant track of Arctic Sea ice extent and volume. The following overview of conditions was published on their Internet site at nsidc.org on August 15.
”From August 1 to 14, sea ice extent declined at a daily rate of 91,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles), still above the 1981 to 2010 rate of decline of 71,000 square kilometers (27,400 square kilometers) during this period. However, this is still below the decline of 112,000 square kilometers (43,000 square miles) per day observed in 2012.
“At the beginning of the month, the 2019 ice extent was well below 2012. Because the decline through August was slower, the 2019 and 2012 sea ice extents are now close to each other. Because 2012 is a leap year, and our tracking follows the day of the year, August 15 in 2012 is August 14 in non-leap years.
“The ice extent for August 14, 2019 is 5.04 million square kilometers (1.95 million square miles), approximately 100,000 square kilometers (38,600 square miles) higher than for August 14, 2012 (Figure 1a).
Sea ice retreat in the first half of August 2019 was mainly in an area of patchy sea ice in the East Siberian Sea and along the ice edge in the northern Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The Northern Sea Route appears to be open in our satellite-based mapping, but ice may remain in some areas. The Northwest Passage is still closed. There was little change in the ice edge in the Svalbard region and northern Barents and Laptev Seas. However, areas of low sea ice concentration are present along much of the remaining ice edge.
”A comparison of 2019 and 2012 ice extent for August 14 shows remarkable similarities. In 2012, some patchy ice remained in the east Siberian Sea; however, the ice edge in the northeastern Beaufort and northern Chukchi Seas was further north, and some larger channels in the Canadian Archipelago were open (Figure 1b).”
