Should not that ICESat-2 uses a green laser and can't see through clouds. This will severely limit the ice thickness data now that Arctic summers have become extremely cloudy.

I think it is important to realize that Wayne lives in the high arctic. While most of us view and discuss modeled results of remote sensors (mostly satellite based) and try to relate it to our knowledge of physics and chemistry Wayne is standing outside with an expensive thermometer and a camera. There is a difference between theory and models which mostly assume equilibrium conditions and actual conditions. When Wayne reports that large snowfalls in the fall can result in floating snow it is because he is standing there and is seeing it live. It really doesn't matter if it is not "theoretically" possible - he is there observing it. He also reports how dynamic the conditions are and how sometimes the eventual result is solid ice and sometimes open water reforms. All assumptions of mixing and equilibrium are likely not completely correct. Reality tends to be must less tidy than models

Wayne, Thanks for posting the images of what is actually happening near Resolute. The only other sources of visual "ground truth" left are Barrow, AK's webcam and the Obuoy 14 camera. Through the light fog I didn't see any ice in the water off of Barrow and Obuoy 14 just showed it was night. I thought that after the ice formed from falling snow near Resolute the ice was set for the winter there. Your photos clearly show that it didn't last. Thanks for the photos.

Wayne, So if the winds stay calm and the temperature drops then the expanses of submerged snow become thin first year ice. Is this right? That thin first year ice immediately becomes a somewhat insulating layer very early in the freezing season slowing the heat lose and potentially reducing the first year ice thickness for the winter.

Don't forget that once the surface water temperature is at or below the freezing point of pure water snow falling onto it won't melt. This can result in a thin layer of ice forming long before air temperatures fall below -10C. This is likely the fastest way for the Arctic waters to "freeze over" after the end of the melting season. This is a possible mechanism for the "flash freezing" we sometimes see. Wayne has described this before.

Plus a somewhat lower resolution version gets built up gradually swath by swath on EOSDIS Worldview. http://go.nasa.gov/2bWKK2A You can use that to compare different products and days.

Instead of arguing about what various people have written about what Rignot says we can just listen to Eric Rignot himself. He addressed the difference in his and Hansen's projections in a talk this past year. Here's a link to the part where tells us. https://youtu.be/3p9uRxX95f4?t=23m20s By the way the entire presentation is great and worth watching.