Michael,
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We can argue about how much surface melting has occurred this year vs. 2012 because of the compaction....... <snip>
What compaction? I don't see any compaction to be worth mentioning. I am using a large screen high def laptop. I don't see it. Can those that keep bringing up compaction show some images or other proof? Please.
They don't see it, they simply assume that a long lasting high pressure system must have compacted (compressed) the ice or stacked it up to 10m hights, an opinion that i do not share.
CAB area is quite low not especially high as it would be in case the above mentioned assumptions were right.
I am happy to oblige. The following gif is from the N Laptev Sea during the recent high, July 12-18, when winds were swirling clockwise about the pole. Bottom image is for general context, with the area of the gif circled.
I have selected a number of distinctive floes/features and put a red dot just to the left of each . One would expect the floes to follow the wind direction and just rotate, if one does not take into account the Coriolis Effect.
So if just wind is considered the floes should just move laterally here (to the right of the image, to the west).
Instead, every floe veers to the right and moves north towards the pole (approximately). If you look carefully, you will see that virtually all the surrounding floes do the same. The ice cap as a whole is not shifting, because it has nowhere to go on the Canadian side (continent in the way).
The ice is compacting. Indeed, on the Canadian side, ice is also veering right towards the pole helping produce the cracks you see N of Canada and Greenland.
The retreat of the ice edge in the Laptev is in large part due to this compaction/motion towards the pole. If you look carefully, you will see even the floes at the ice's edge are moving polewards as well as melting away. In fact, they are moving more towards the north than the interior floes. To be clear, I am not denying melting (it is considerable), but you are doubting compaction due to the high, and I hope this helps clear that up.
Warning: large gif.