Ice expansion creates ‘complete closing of the Northern Sea Route for shipping’

From Science Matters

The animation shows the rapid growth of Arctic ice extent during October 2023, from day 274 to day 304, yesterday.  For all of the fuss over the September minimum, little is said about Arctic ice growing 4M km2, that’s 4 Wadhams in one month!.  Look on the left (Russian side) at the complete closing of the Northern Sea Route for shipping.

The graph below show 2023 compared to the 17 year average (2006 to 2022 inclusive), to SII (Sea Ice Index) and some notable years.

This year October added 3.95M km2 from end of September compared to an average October increase of 3.45M km2.  As of yesterday NH ice extent is 368k km2 above average and nearly 600k km2 greater than 2007.

The table below shows the distribution of ice in the Arctic Ocean basins.

Region	2023304	Ave. Day 304	2023-Ave.	2007304	2023-2007
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	8768573	8422636	345938	8175072	593501
(1) Beaufort_Sea	780946	957189	-176243	1038126	-257180
(2) Chukchi_Sea	535578	454974	80604	242685	292894
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1078989	936944	142045	835071	243917
(4) Laptev_Sea	897845	842696	55149	887789	10055
(5) Kara_Sea	655623	473780	181843	311960	343664
(6) Barents_Sea	121748	83466	38282	52823	68925
(7) Greenland_Sea	528448	412774	115675	443559	84890
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	243512	256243	-12731	289374	-45861
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	629955	762429	-132474	817220	-187265
(10) Hudson_Bay	82242	69487	12754	48845	33396
(11) Central_Arctic	3207724	3161034	46690	3206345	1379

Overall ice extent has 346k km2 above average or 4%.  Sizeable deficits are in Beaufort Sea and Canadian Archipelago, more than offset by surpluses in Chukchi, East Siberian, Kara and Greenland seas.