Here are a few IJIS/JAXA/ADS numbers that might be of passing interest to some on the forum...
With the data for 9th Jan 2017 incorporated, the rolling 12-month average for Arctic SIE now stands at 9.725 million sq kms. At the same date in 2016, the rolling 12-month average was 10.108 million sq kms.
This represents a very impressive (although worrying is a better word) drop of ~ 383k sq kms in the space of a year. However, a bit more sobriety can be introduced by comparing the current rolling 12-month value to the equivalent on 9th Jan 2013. Following on from the stupendous summer/autumn losses in 2012, by that date, the rolling 12 was at 9.962 million sq kms. So another way to look at this is to say there has been a drop of ~ 237k sq kms in the rolling-12 month average over the last 4 years - or about 59k sq kms per annum.
To me at least, this is most assuredly NOT indicative of there being an entirely ice-free Arctic within the next decade - as has been suggested by some.
However, even without the ludicrous alarmism, there is still plenty in these numbers to worry about. The annual average extent for the decades 1980-89, 1990-1999 and 2000-2009 were (in millions of sq kms)...
11,957 11,440 10,773 respectively.
For the period 2010-2016, the equivalent figure has dropped to 10.132 million sq kms. Who knows what this will stand at by the end of the present decade?
Referring again to the aftermath of 2012, the rolling-12 month average reached a local minimum of ~9.915 million sq kms in mid-May of 2013. As at today's date, the rolling 24-month value stands at ~9.916 million sq kms.
The lowest rolling 12-month value associated with the 2007 melt season happened on mid November of that year, and clocked in at ~10.057 million sq kms. By comparison, the rolling 36-month average currently stands at ~10.052 million sq kms.
The rolling 60-month average is presently ~10.107 million sq kms - or only 50k higher than the absolute lowest rolling 12-month figure recorded anytime before 2011.
What was once an outlier is gradually becoming commonplace.