Global Sea Ice Extent at Lowest *Ever Level

A few days ago we reported that the Cryosphere Today global sea ice area metric had fallen to the “lowest *ever” level since their records began in 1979. CT area just fell to yet another all time low once again. Today we are able to bring you the news that NSIDC global sea ice extent also achieved “lowest *ever” status today, at 16.707 million square kilometers. Here’s the graph to prove it:

Global-Extent-2016-02-18

As we discussed when global sea ice area reached its all time low level:

This measure doesn’t tell us all that much about the health of either Arctic or Antarctic regions, if only because the seasons move in opposite directions (nevertheless, the global sea ice trend is down). It’s just an interesting statistical factoid.

Rest assured that nonetheless we will attempt to bring this “statistical factoid” to the attention of those who have been merrily claiming for the past few years that “the trend on the daily observations of global sea-ice extent by the satellites since 1979 is remarkably close to zero.”

To begin with, let’s see when (if?) this comment sees the cold light of day shall we?

2016-02-18_1911-WUWT

[Edit – 08:30 UTC February 19th 2016]

The comment shown above has now seen the light of day, whereas a number of others have not. Here’s the rest of the assorted conversations, so far:

Them:

I prefer this chart:

DMI_extent-30_20160217

That’s at 30%, which eliminates most of the wind-blown bergs. It measures the thicker ice cover, so it’s a more accurate representation.

You can see 2016 starting to move up after a strong 2015 finish.

 

Us:

This one is currently still invisible over there:

That’s the one which the Danish Meteorological Institute no longer even mention on their website because it’s been deprecated and unsupported for so long:

http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php

Here’s the graph (of Arctic sea ice extent only) which they currently recommend, which shows broadly the same thing as the NSIDC’s version:

DMI_icecover_20160219

Can we get back to GLOBAL sea ice area/extent now?

I didn’t want to use up my limited allocation of links over at WUWT, but here is what the Arctic sea ice chart that WUWT mods (and “Steve Goddard“) prefer currently looks like:

DMI_extent-30_20160218

Maybe that’s why the WUWT moderator in question felt compelled to display Wednesday’s chart instead of Thursday’s?

 

Them:

[I don’t think any of [Monckton, Soon or Legates] with bother with your off-topic question. as said earlier, your entire m.o. is to launch a taunt, and it doesn’t merit a response since this isn’t any particularly noteworthy event. -mod]

 

Us:

This one is currently still invisible too:

Have you got something against Clive Best? Both my comments that link to our conversation about global area/extent are still invisible.

The “lowest EVAH!!” value of Christopher Monkton’s favourite sea ice metric doesn’t merit a response from him? On an article subtitled “killer questions that expose how wrong and ideologically driven they are”? Surely you jest?

Quoting from the ice cool Snow White:

On January 19th 2016 the Watts Up With That blog published an article by one “Christopher Monckton of Brenchley” entitled “20 false representations in one 10-minute video“. The 15th “false representation” read as follows:

That Arctic sea ice is declining, though Antarctic sea ice has been on a rising trend and reached a satellite-era record in early 2015, and though the decline in Arctic sea ice is chiefly only in a few late-summer weeks and is a small fraction of the seasonal variation in sea-ice extent, so that neither the extent nor the trend of global sea ice (from the University of Illinois) shows much change throughout the satellite era.

Where is the Good Lord when you need him? Where is Willie Soon for that matter?

 

Here are my other comments that have yet to catch the eagle eyes of the Watts Up With That band of merry moderators:

2016-02-18_1951-WUWT

2016-02-15_1800-WUWT

2016-02-12_2353-WUWT

 

* Since satellite records began

3 thoughts on “Global Sea Ice Extent at Lowest *Ever Level

  1. This one’s good.

    That’s at 30%, which eliminates most of the wind-blown bergs. It measures the thicker ice cover, so it’s a more accurate representation.

    You can see 2016 starting to move up after a strong 2015 finish.

    No, actually, if you look at the legend, you’ll see that 2015 is starting to move up after a strong 2015 finish. 😀

    Amazing that people are actually using this graph to make a point. I’ve asked the DMI about this over a month ago and they told me that the old plot can’t be used for anything. They don’t even know what’s wrong with it, and simply aren’t interested in finding out because they have a new official graph.

  2. Since the now apparently defunct DMI 30% concentration threshold Arctic sea ice extent metric is in the news around the planet again today it seems prudent to record for posterity the current status of DMI’s 15% threshold metric. Here it is:

    DMI-15-2016-02-22

    I don’t know about you, but it looks to me a lot like it too is still well into the “lowest ever for the date” category.

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