In sea ice news this week, Arctic sea ice continues its inexorable climb toward the summit, to be reached sometime in March 2011. At present the ice growth is tracking just below the rate of 2007, but it should also be pointed out that according to JAXA’s AMSRE plot, we are still slightly ahead of this date last year.

The magnified view below shows just how close together all the past years are in the “choke point”:

2010 is just between 2007 and 2009 at present, and all three traces have a “knee bend” at this point, though 2010 is sharper.

Current data for JAXA:

10,31,2010,8075000 11,01,2010,8240938 11,02,2010,8403594 11,03,2010,8500000 11,04,2010,8621875 11,05,2010,8672500 11,06,2010,8693438 11,07,2010,8800781 11,08,2010,8908906 11,09,2010,8987031 11,10,2010,9056406 11,11,2010,9117656 11,12,2010,9164375 11,13,2010,9172969 11,14,2010,9183594

Over 1 million square kilometers of sea ice extent has been added in the past 15 days.

NSIDC’s plot shows 2010 compared to 2007, but has 5 day smoothing, so the knee bend is not visible.

But the NANSEN plot shows these bends clearly:

Overall, nearly the entire Arctic ocean is well filled with sea ice at this point. Only the Barents and Chukchi seas have ice free areas:

Temperature within 80°N is slightly below normal at present, thought= nothing out of the ordinary variance:

Antarctic sea ice extent remains above normal:

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