Attached below is the average sea ice concentration map for 2003-2014 (NB! the baseline is different from previous posts this season as 2012 for this date is available in AMSR2 and 2002 for some reason isn't available at all). The other two maps display 2015 vs average and 2015 vs 2012 respectively, with reds indicating a decrease in sea ice and blue meaning the opposite. All data is 1st August from Uni-Bremen.
It should come as no surprise, given the SIA/SIE numbers, that this year is currently well below the 2003-14 average. ESS, chukchi, Barents and Kara are mostly in the red, but the situation appears more mixed in Laptev, Beaufort and CAA.
2012 still seems quite far ahead though, even excluding Hudson and Baffin. I have a hard time imagining how 2015 is supposed to beat that year, also CAA is way behind, which is perhaps somewhat surprising given that this area has been subjected to intense heat this July, but not unheard of either given that there is significantly more MYI there now compared to 2012.
Regarding the SST discussion, I'm most exited about the intense anomalies in Kara. The first time Kara melted so early and scooped up such loads of heat was 2011, then it seemingly took Kara 18 months to recover (That is considering the 11/12 refreeze failure and subsequent early meltout in 2012 to be directly related to the 2011 crash, which may not be correct)