Tag: Antarctic Sea Ice

10 Feet Thick Ice Stops Icebreaker in Antarctic

Published on by sunshinehours13 Comments

The Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy has been stuck in the Antarctic Ice since Monday. The Chinese Ice Breaker  Xue Long, or Snow Dragon got within six miles and it too was stopped by thick ice.

“It got stuck in the ice on Monday night — 15 days after setting out on the second leg of its research trip.

According to Turney, the ship was surrounded by ice up to nearly 10 feet (3 meters) thick. It was about 100 nautical miles east of the French base Dumont D’Urville, about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, Tasmania.

The Russian expedition ship is carrying scientists and passengers led by an Australian climate change professor.”

I find it ironic the “climate change professor” led the ship and passengers into 10 foot thick ice. He’s kind of thick. But maybe 10 feet thick ice in the summer is unusual?

 

 

 

Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Update as of Dec 17 2013 (Day 351)

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Antarctic Sea Ice Extent is 1.5 million sq km above the 1981-2010 mean. Thats almost 15% higher.

The mean for the day is 10.25 million sq km and the most recent day’s data is 11.78 million sq km.

After a few days of being in 3rd place Antarctic Sea Ice Extent is now back in 2nd place.

Antarctic_Sea_Ice_Extent_Zoomed_2013_Day_351_1981-2010

Antarctic_Sea_Ice_Extent_2013_Day_351_1981-2010

Global Sea Ice 5th Highest For the Day

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Apologies. Global Sea Ice is actually 5th highest. Not 3rd as I wrote. Back from a trip. Brain rusty.I misread. Antarctic Sea Ice Extent is  3rd.  Global is not 3rd. It is 5th.

As of Dec 16 2013, Global Sea Ice is the 5th highest for the day, and above the 1981-2010 mean by 900,000 sq km.

Global_Sea_Ice_Extent_Zoomed_2013_Day_349_1981-2010

Global_Sea_Ice_Extent_2013_Day_349_1981-2010

2nd Daily Record in a Row Antarctic Sea Ice Extent – 107th For 2013

Published on by sunshinehours15 Comments

Day 342 and 343 (Dec 8th/9th) were daily records for Antarctic Sea Ice Extent. That makes them the 106th and 107th records for 2013.

2008 still leads with 122 daily records. 2013 does have 244 1st and 2nd place finishes for in front of 2008 with 160 1st and 2nds.

2013 will probably only set 2 or 3 more records before the records set in 2007 prevent any more.

Antarctic_Sea_Ice_Extent_Zoomed_2013_Day_343_1981-2010

50th Daily Record in a Row for Antarctic Sea Ice Extent (and 104th in total)

Published on by sunshinehours11 Comment

November 16th 2013 (Day 320) saw the 50th Daily Record for Antarctic Sea Ice Extent in a row! It was also the 104th daily record for 2013.

I thought this graph would show 2013 below the 2010 line, but melting slowed from 150,000 sq km per day to 80,000 sq km and then 20,000 sq km per day in the last 2 days.

Antarctic_Sea_Ice_Extent_Zoomed_2013_Day_320_1981-2010

Year No of Records
2008 123
2013 104
2010 92
2007 21
2009 8
2012 8
2000 4
2004 3
1979 2
2006 1

Antarctic Sea Ice Update Oct 28, 2013

Published on by sunshinehours18 Comments

Antarctic Sea Ice Extent data has been unavailable for a few days. I emailed NSIDC and today they replied and said:

“Occasional short-term delays and data outages do occur and are usually resolved in a few days. We are currently experiencing such a short-term delay and we will get the issue resolved as quickly as possible.”

Commenter Gary also posted a link to this page that says:

“October 25, 2013: Daily updates to the graph and image are temporarily suspended due to technical difficulties with the data provider.”

Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Stats for 2013 (As Of Oct 22)

Published on by sunshinehours11 Comment

Since the last time I did the stats for Antarctic Sea Ice Extent  a few things of changed.

A new all time record was set at 19.57088 million sq km. The new maximum occurred on day 274, which is now makes 2013 the 2nd latest maximum.

Year Min Max Day Of Max Day Of Min
2013 3.6504 19.57088 274 50
2012 3.11109 19.47713 266 54
2011 2.31884 18.95328 266 53
2010 2.8422 18.9968 249 47
2009 2.67096 19.29864 267 53
2008 3.69176 18.29726 247 51
2007 2.7227 19.08545 272 50
2006 2.4866 19.35934 264 51
2005 2.80387 19.29451 272 49
2004 3.25927 19.12341 252 51
2003 3.6257 18.67907 268 48
2002 2.69691 18.11556 252 51
2001 3.44094 18.49324 271 50
2000 2.58248 19.15817 272 49
1999 2.70723 18.98068 273 51
1998 2.7715 19.2433 258 56
1997 2.26415 18.79094 265 58
1996 2.59733 18.83039 267 56
1995 3.32988 18.7353 269 55
1994 3.08286 18.8266 243 43
1993 2.28078 18.709 263 50
1992 2.49238 18.4663 255 54
1991 2.55355 18.66993 273 58
1990 2.78435 18.3788 273 53
1989 2.7229 18.27368 266 51
1988 2.63862 18.78456 277 55
1987 3.01642 18.52332 258 52
1986 2.95395 18.02672 261 65
1985 2.60211 18.93215 254 50
1984 2.38292 18.37747 266 58
1983 2.84656 18.81042 263 55
1982 2.8927 18.55004 246 52
1981 2.69524 18.85906 261 51
1980 2.52686 19.09137 267 57
1979 2.91521 18.36699 256 48

There have now been 78 Daily Records set in 2013. 1979 is down to 2 records. 1998 is down to 1 and that happened on day 300 which is only a few days away.  So 1998 could fall off the list of daily records.

Year No of Records
2008 125
2010 107
2013 78
2007 21
2009 8
2012 8
2006 6
2000 4
2004 3
2005 3
1979 2
1998 1