Arctic double stunner: Sea ice extent is now below 2007 levels, while volume hit record low for March
While the anti-science crowd scours the globe desperately looking for any indication of their imaginary cooling, reality has intruded again.
Because they and the media — and even some scientists who don’t follow the subject closely — tend to take a two-dimensional view of the Arctic, they along with much of the public have been fooled into thinking the Arctic “recovered” in the past two years because sea ice extent appeared to recover. Heck, some even claimed last month the Arctic ice was “recovering” to the 1979-2000 average.
Climate Progress readers have long understood that trends in multi-year ice — ice volume — are what matter most in terms of the long-term survivability of the Arctic ice in the summer (see New study supports finding that “the amount of [multi-year] sea ice in the northern hemisphere was the lowest on record in 2009″).
CP readers have also understood that Arctic volume did not recover in the last two years. Quite the reverse — we appear to have been breaking volume records over the past several months according to the Polar Science Center:
Total Arctic Ice Volume for March 2010 is 20,300 km^3, the lowest over the 1979-2009 period and 38% below the 1979 maximum. September Ice Volume was lowest in 2009 at 5,800 km^3 or 67% below its 1979 maximum.
That is, in September, PSC says we saw the lowest volume ever, and in March, we saw the lowest volume for that month, according to their Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS). Cryosphere scientists I have spoken to say PIOMAS is best for showing long-term trends, and they do recommend the caveat that it is a model, and so conclusions should be viewed accordingly. That said, as the website shows, the analysis has been validated.
