Tag Archives: Copernicus

Facts About the Arctic in February 2026

Hudson Bay has fully frozen over during January. However, there is still open water north of Svalbard and in the North Water Polynya. It’s even possible to go swimming in the Nares Strait according to the latest AMSR2 concentration map from the Alfred Wegener Institute:

JAXA extent is currently 3rd lowest for the date, in a “statistical tie” with 2017:

Looking at the third dimension next, PIOMAS volume was second lowest for the date by a whisker at the end of January:

Here’s the associated sea ice thickness map:

Continue reading Facts About the Arctic in February 2026

An Unusual Sea Ice Situation North of Greenland

Further to our recent coverage of the voyage of the good ship Polarstern past Kap Morris Jesup comes this video courtesy of Suman Singha:

An animation created with 2745 high resolution Sentinel-1 SAR images.

Sentinel-1 data courtesy Copernicus

Plus the early autumn estimates of Arctic sea ice thickness from CryoSat-2 via the Centre for Polar Observation and Monitoring:

CS2_thk_14-20181010

Please note the abnormally thin sea ice to the north of Greenland.

Finally, for the moment at least, here’s the latest Arctic sea ice age information extracted from the October 2018 edition of the NSIDC’s Arctic Sea Ice News:

iceage_browse_week_n_2018_38_QL

TschudiAge2018-1000

The “oldest, thickest sea ice in the Arctic” seems to be vanishing before our very eyes.