Thanks Rob. You are correct about the area of the Hudson Bay, I had glanced at Wikipedia and the 4 million km^2 number was for the Bay and the surrounding area.

The CAB and the Hudson Bay are roughly the same area at 4 km^2. I am trying to come to grip with map distortions and throwing that tidbit out there for you all. It may look like there is relatively half the ice left in the Arctic but that is far from the truth.

Thanks, crandles. Circle, duh! Using the first equation, the sq km above 80N is ~3.9 M km^2. So 3.9 - 1 = 2.9 b/w 80N-85N. Divide that by 24 and that is how many sq km each 80-85N cell in the Bremen concentration graph represents (0.12 M km^2). That helps me a lot to translate these maps in actual numbers.

Yes, but I was only using the measurement for reference of size. I found an online calculator that gives me the distance b/w two sets of lat/long coordinates. It gives me the distance b/w 85N-0E and 90N-0E is 568km. Next, the distance b/w 87.5N-0E and 87.5N-90E is 393km (1/4th, had to use that since the calculator would take me through the NP). So 588 * 393 * 4 = ~875,000 KM^2 above 85N. Okay?

Sorry, 80N.

How many sq km are above 90N? Just trying to figure out if DMI drop is possible. TIA

Is that the first time Dr. Masters linked to this site, Neven? Good to see you recognized, I think this is one of the most interesting sites on the internet.

Here is the link to daily AOs > ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/cwlinks/norm.daily.ao.index.b500101.current.ascii

Daily AOs since 1950. Last time exceeded 5 was 1993. Looking at local weather, I don't see any significant effects from a strongly positive AO. I wouldn't expect any big snowfalls right now but that is about it. Maybe somebody can find an actual paper.

I came across this adventurer's website the other day. He is trying to solo sail the NW passage. http://www.solotheamericas.org/

That ice crack is interesting. By using the that marker, I can see the movement b/w the two ice whatchamacallit (drifts/floes/fields) switched from yesterday. The internal temp of web cam #2 increased 5.5 degrees Celsius in 8 minutes today (if that is accurate, it makes the weather in my hometown seem tame) --> http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/npole/2010/images/noaa2-2010-0719-070908.jpg http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/npole/2010/images/noaa2-2010-0719-071708.jpg

Can anyone tell me if the black dots on this map are melt ponds? Steve, Looks like they are small open areas -- http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?subset=Arctic_r04c04.2010189.terra.250m. Seems like anything black is either open sea or so thin that it is virtually melted within the contiguous ice extent. Nice graph. Neven, Thanks for upgrading the temperature map. [fixed the link - N.]

SST arctic anomalies. Select anomaly and loop thru the last few weeks. +5C anomalies show up and grow (like 2007 from what I have read). http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/satellite/index.uk.php

Looking through older ice flow charts you can see the direction of the ice in the Beaufort Sea does change direction periodically. It appears that the changing direction of the current has stopped the ice flow over the last day or so. It will be interesting to see if the flow rate increases going the opposite direction and how much ice is pushed out of the two straits. http://iabp.apl.washington.edu/Summary/8309.gif

Blinking thru the images of the flow of ice in the Nares Strait and looking back at 2009, I wonder if one was to measure the flow of ice in km/day and took the highest flow rates and matched to century breaks there would be a high correlation. 2009 July 5th ice arch final days: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?subset=Arctic_r03c03.2009186.terra.1km

The Cryosphere Today concentrations predicted this break-up nicely the last week. It looks like they have about 60-80% ice in the area right now so we should expect it to break up pretty quickly now.