Polar Ice for 2017

Greenland Summit T is still being measured:

Presented here (amusingly) in Fahrenheit, I thought that all eggheads had switched to metric. More interested in numbers than squiggle, it appears necessary to email somebody for a file. Report on that later.

But by searching done already I see that low T in 2016 July was unusual and led to some media predicting new ice age or whatever. Which led to facepalms by rationalists. Somehow we missed that here, but Greenland summit just keeps going along. Gawd what an awful place! But we are obliged to look because the GISP2 core proxy temperature ranged from -32 to -29 oC over 5000 years. Now that place is warmer, outside the GISP2 range.

Only two motivations for staying with this topic. First, respect for work being done there. Second, I feel certain that somebody else in future will tell the GISP2 story wrong again, and such may drift into our view here.

 

Not merely two winters, but two winters in the very same place, in the harbor of what is now Gjoa Haven, Nunavut. No progress that summer.

They also spent a third winter out, at Herschel Island, Yukon, before proceeding on to Nome Alaska.

 

It was a whacking awful time to get through northern ice, but 'big A' had his motivations. No slouch either in later South-Polar work. We'd do well to honor all that and not disrespect by claiming his battle with ice was trivial as it would be under current conditions.

 

No slouch, certainly, when he set out alone on a 500 mile trek to the nearest telegraph station, at Eagle, Alaska, to 'phone home'. Then returned to spend the rest of the winter with his crew.

That three year voyage must have been good training for the South Pole.

 

Those were the days, and the people, eh? Now we just sit in our nearly isothermal boxes and respond to internetting that strikes us well or ill. If someone proposed we are not up to Major Challenges Anymore, I'd have to search for counter examples.

Such do exist, but this is not quite right place for exposition.

 

Arctic Springtime Postponed | Science Matters

 

Reports Of Arctic Ice Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated…Greenland Ice Mass Near Record

 

{sigh} Deja vu all over again.

No, Greenland ice mass is nowhere near a record high. That graph above is basically the annual surface accumulation, net after surface melting. It does not include the calving loss, which is very substantial. Even though every curve on the graph above shows a net annual surface gain, the overall change including calving losses has been averaging a 200Gt/year loss.

Here is the most recent (last year) GRACE ice mass total. It would take many years of the above surface accumulation, without any calving losses at all, to catch back up to the recorded maximum:

http://polarportal.dk/fileadmin/polarportal/mass/Grace_curve_La_EN_20160300.png
Total mass change: Polar Portal
To refresh on past discussions, read these:
Future temperatures | Page 2 | PriusChat
Future temperatures | Page 2 | PriusChat
Future temperatures | Page 3 | PriusChat

 

Thick Arctic ice pack traps boats, triggers rescue operation off Newfoundland | CTV Atlantic News

 

What does that have to do the amount of sea ice in the Arctic? The American Southwest is a desert, but every once in awhile a deluge happens, causing flash floods. It doesn't mean the place is no longer a desert.

Apparently, you didn't even bother looking at the article you linked. This was only about a quarter way into it.

"We had a bit of stuff that forms over the winter, the normal ice in the area," he said. "What we're experiencing now is the ice that has come south through the Arctic due to melting up there."
​

I underlined the important bit.

 

.

 

The next line is also quite important:

"What's unusual this year, Hodgson said, is the way the winds have pushed the thick pack ice towards land rather than out to sea."

I thanked Mojo for linking to a news article that points to Arctic melting, in contradiction to one of his usual talking points. So apparently his mind is more open than it usually seems from his postings.

 

Outside my Venn diagram to know if anything new or interesting is presented here:

Arctic Sea Ice Primed for Phenomenal Melt Season by Bob Henson | Category 6 | Weather Underground