PIOMAS 2013

After a hiatus due to the US government shutdown, PIOMAS for the annual northern sea ice minimum is finally out.

Here’s an update of my earlier post (may need a browser refresh):

PIOMAS tracks the total volume of sea ice floating on the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas. September generally sees the end of the melt season, so it’s time to see how 2013 went. For those paying attention, this year has been something of a breather in a breakneck decline. Are we perhaps seeing the beginnings of an S-curve tail out, or will next year again plummet towards zero summer ice?

 

PIOMAs northern sea ice volume

PIOMAS northern sea ice volume

 

Red dots are data from CryoSat-2 direct measurement of ice thickness and volume, from Table 1 of Laxton et al1. More on the graph page.

Ref:

1. Laxon S. W., K. A. Giles, A. L. Ridout, D. J. Wingham, R. Willatt, R. Cullen, R. Kwok, A. Schweiger, J. Zhang, C. Haas, S. Hendricks, R. Krishfield, N. Kurtz, S. Farrell and M. Davidson (2013), CryoSat-2 estimates of Arctic sea ice thickness and volume, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 732–737, doi:10.1002/grl.50193