Tag Archives: Utqiaġvik

The Northwest Passage in 2026

For those of you unfamiliar with the names of the assorted islands and channels of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago here is a map that hopefully helps:

Plus another map detailing the routes through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago that have previously been successfully navigated by vessels large and small:

The sea ice in Lancaster Sound and the Amundsen Gulf is breaking up, and melt ponds are now visible on the fast ice across much of the southern route through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago:

“False colour” image of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on June 17th from the MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite

The melt ponds previously visible in the Coronation Gulf now appear to have drained:

“False colour” image of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on June 3rd from the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite
Continue reading The Northwest Passage in 2026

Facts About the Arctic in November 2024

The Laptev and East Siberian Seas have now refrozen. Consequently Arctic sea ice extent is now increasing more slowly, and JAXA/ViSHOP extent is 3rd lowest for the date in the satellite era:

Introducing the third dimension, here’s the PIOMAS gridded thickness data for the end of October 2024:

Note the change in scale from previous months, to allow for easier comparison with the “near real time” CryoSat-2/SMOS merged thickness data from the Alfred Wegener Institute: 

Continue reading Facts About the Arctic in November 2024

Facts About the Arctic in July 2022

After a relatively rapid decline at the beginning of June Arctic sea extent is now very close to the 2010s average:

Both 2020 and 2021 began relatively rapid declines of their own at the beginning of July, so it will be interesting to see if 2022 follows suit.

Most of the fast ice off Utqiaġvik has recently disappeared:

Meanwhile further out into the Chukchi Sea the sea ice looks to be in poor shape at the moment, with surface melting apparent across the entire region:

Continue reading Facts About the Arctic in July 2022