This would seem to resolve the mystery?
For my AWI based area/extent metrics I currently only use the AM data. There's a lot of PM "noise" in the Baltic as well, that's been truncated in this view.
To my untrained eye those AMSR2 & AWI images suggest shocking weakness in large areas of high latitude ASI as we approach the freezing season peak. Looks like Chukchi/ESS and esp. the central-Atlantic-side CAB near NP are too weak to last beyond August 1. Extent is high vs. recent years, but those images make structural integrity and near-term melt season prospects seem very weak.
Comments from those with historical perspective or deeper understanding to correctly interpret those image types sought. If the image date was May or June I could fob it off as caused by spurious melt pond reflectance. But it can't be melt ponding in February at those latitudes. Or if it is, that in itself would be a shocking sign of ASI degradation. Cloud cover is suspect, but the same pattern appears on two dates and across two image sources, both of which I think can see through clouds.
And might as well add this: the heat anomaly along the CAB-CAA border looks like a knife into the heart of the "Last Ice" area. I know it is just temporary weather but it isn't just that one day. With 'garlic press', Nares Arch, and Nares Strait export implications, that truly is the "Last" place where you want weak ASI heading towards melt season.
Or am I just engaging in pre-melt season spring training warm-up doomerism?