I've been waiting to talk about the state of the Arctic until we had reached the minimum extent, and we have either reached it or will shortly, depending on which measure you look at, more on that below. Also, if you'd like to see many more images of the state of the Arctic, click here.
The freezing and melting of sea ice has a large effect on the circulations of the seas and oceans. Here's an excerpt from the NSIDC about that importance:
"Salt plays an important role in ocean circulation. In cold, polar regions, changes in salinity affect ocean density more than changes in temperature. When salt is ejected into the ocean as sea ice forms, the water's salinity increases. Because salt water is heavier, the density of the water increases and the water sinks. The exchange of salt between sea ice and the ocean influences ocean circulation across hundreds of kilometers."
I wanted to share a post from a meteorologist that I think takes a very honest look at the state of the ice, and he said this today.
"Now that it looks like we've reached the minimum on all metrics, time for a quick review.
UPDATE 09/15/16 - Here's an additional comment from another meteorologist:
"Statistical tie for 2nd place with 2007 on NSIDC.http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
UPDATE: 09/15/16 - More comments from the mets
2016 finished 3rd by their metrics. Additionally, NSIDC fails to never mentioned sea ice extent minimum values before 2012 were based on a nine day trailing mean. Since then we have a 5 day trailing mean, which makes the minimum extent value appear lower than it would be had there been a 9 day trailing mean. The 2016 arctic sea ice extent minimum based on a 9 day trailing mean is 4.18 million square kilometers. For those wondering the daily NSIDC arctic sea ice daily minimum value was September 7th, 2016. In layman's terms the 5 day running mean for 2007 was adjusted to 4.15 million square kilometers years after the actual minimum. Even if you take the 9 day running mean of 2007's adjusted data, 2016 is higher.
This is an animated image of the sea ice, beginning the last week of August through September 12th. You can see the ice beginning to make it's winter comeback, so we know the minimum extent was reached earlier this month.
UPDATE 09/15/16 - "The early rapid freeze up continues. We are now in 4th place in northern hemisphere sea ice extent (JAXA) as of September 14th, 2016. We are potentially setting up for one of the longest arctic sea ice freeze seasons on record."