I will try my first gif
Not well tuned
Its 40 days or so of Beaufort front evolution form MODIS
I see a few interesting things but its so late, took so long, tomorrow.
What the heck l, I cant sleep today (not because of the Arctic though)
- The MYI is broken up in huge floes.
- These are North of CAA on early May, but drift toward Beaufort, especially a couple of huge floes. The open water in Beaufort widens due to southern winds too.
- Meanwhile Alaska loses almost all snow cover, clean skies are observed for quite a few days, ice turnes blueish. McKenzie river discharge starts. Open water must be warming up. Albedo (land and ocean) goes down very quickly.
- Then for 20 days or so the ice edge does not advance much, but MYI keeps turning, and getting well into Beaufort Sea. Also diverging drift of the floes is apparent, and maybe some of the smallest floes disappearing from the picture (speculation).
- HYCOM predicts that drift will push MYI further toward coast and McKenzie river region for the next few days.
- My speculation is that great part of MYI that approaches the coast is going to melt out completely even when the ice edge seems not to advance. Maybe ironically some North component of winds ends up being fatal for these enormous thick blocks.
- There is also a more homogeneous (thinner?) ice close to coast that is melting faster and drifting toward Barrow. Very blue ice. That should melt out sooner.