Update 20150722.
Changes from 20150715.
Extent: -934.6 (-227k vs 2014, +50k vs 2013, +246k vs 2012)
Area: -883.8 (-429k vs 2014, -291k vs 2013, +99k vs 2012)
Strong declines amounting to about -130k/day for both total area and extent. All regions contribute, specially the Hudson and ESS. If there is one region that is slow it would be Baffin that has plenty of unusual ice for the date.
The numbers take 2015 well past 2014 that had turned to moderate melt rates for the rest of the season by this time. 2013 went shallow about this date so we will see about that next week.
Total extent is still above 2012, but no more than the excess ice extent in Baffin and Hudson. Leaving those out, with similar extents, total area is now lower than in 2012 by about -150k.
Melting area, as shown in the Jaxa AMSR2 thickness/melting maps, is still high, higher than 2014 but not much over 2013. The 2013 melting fell back quickly in the last week of July, so it will be interesting to see how long 2015 will hold.
Temperatures (ECMWF) were well above freezing over the Central Arctic, but dropping below zero more and more on the Pacific side. Until now I do not see much of that in the area figures.
2013 and 2014 will be most likely be beaten in the race for the lowest minimum. To stay in competition with 2012, 2015 will have to repeat some of the remarkable(!) persistence of 2012 the melt rates. How likely that is should become clear in the coming weeks.
You will find the updated graphs in the
top postThe details (in 1000 km
2):
Extent:
Central Arctic Basin East Siberian Sea Laptev Sea
-46.8 -177.1 -112.5
Kara Sea Barents Sea Greenland Sea
-91.1 -15.7 -24.4
Baffin/Newfoundland Bay St. Lawrence Hudson Bay
-92.2 0.1 -212.0
Canadian Archipelago Beaufort Sea Chukchi Sea
-77.7 -45.7 -40.1
Bering Sea Sea of Okhotsk Total Extent
0.9 0.0 -934.6
Area:
Central Arctic Basin East Siberian Sea Laptev Sea
-95.4 -150.7 -83.2
Kara Sea Barents Sea Greenland Sea
-71.4 -13.6 2.3
Baffin/Newfoundland Bay St. Lawrence Hudson Bay
-89.0 0.1 -131.2
Canadian Archipelago Beaufort Sea Chukchi Sea
-125.4 -102.4 -24.4
Bering Sea Sea of Okhotsk Total Area
0.7 -0.1 -883.8