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Arctic sea ice / Re: The 2020/2021 freezing season
« on: Today at 09:07:12 PM »So basically we have thicker ice on the Pacific side and thinner ice on the Atlantic side this year compared to last. Overall, there does not appear to be a big difference.Concur.
Overall, the damage to the refreeze has already been done. We are now one month past the solstice, and the energy budget is rapidly moving away from building thick ice.<>
The energy budget in the west spitsbergen current north east of Kvitoya is melting ice at the moment, shown here by a rammb animation (https://col.st/jkgLd), jan 20-21, 8.4MB. Some northerly winds are forecast in a couple of days, perhaps the open water will close up a bit if the ice is thick enough on the CAB side.
If JayW is around perhaps he can confirm if this is also showing SST mixing
amsr2-uhh, atlantic side, jan1-20
polar view of part of the 'surface feature' area, jan16, 17 and 20. (10MB)
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Kvitøya (English: "White Island") is an island in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, with an area of 682 square kilometres (263 sq mi). It is the easternmost part of the Kingdom of Norway. The closest Russian Arctic possession, Victoria Island, lies only 62 kilometres (39 mi) to the east of Kvitøya.
The island is almost completely covered by Kvitøyjøkulen, an ice cap with an area of 705 square kilometres (272 sq mi) with a classical, hourglass-shaped dome, which has given it its name. The few ice-free land areas are each only a few square kilometres large and very barren and rocky, the largest being Andréeneset on the southwest corner of the island. Kvitøya is a part of the Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve.