From Science Matters

By Ron Clutz

The animation shows the rapid growth of Arctic ice extent during November 2023, from day 304 to yesterday, day 319.  For all of the fuss over the September minimum, little is said about Arctic ice growing back rapidly; that’s 4 Wadhams in October, plus another 1.3M in Nov to total 10M km2, or 10 Wadhams.  The Russian side on the left froze over in October, and now at the center bottom you can see Beaufort sea and Canadian Archipelago icing up. Center right is Baffin Bay growing ice as well.

The graph below shows the last 30 days of 2023 compared to the 17 year average (2006 to 2022 inclusive), to SII (Sea Ice Index) and some notable years.

From Mid October to Mid November 2023, MASIE shows NH ice extent growing from 6.3 M km2 to 10M.  That matches 2022 and exceeds the 17 year average by more than 200K km2.   SII (Sea Ice Index) is only slightly lower.

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

Region	2023319	Day 319 Ave.	2023-Ave.	2007319	2023-2007
(0) Northern_Hemisphere	9997068	9784253	212815	9737614	259454
(1) Beaufort_Sea	1051194	1063450	-12257	1053727	-2533
(2) Chukchi_Sea	596947	629695	-32748	503783	93164
(3) East_Siberian_Sea	1064913	1075985	-11072	1043952	20960
(4) Laptev_Sea	897845	897217	628	897845	0
(5) Kara_Sea	696199	658489	37710	765376	-69177
(6) Barents_Sea	245998	154920	91078	145438	100560
(7) Greenland_Sea	613312	460620	152692	527575	85737
(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence	536576	526706	9870	533931	2645
(9) Canadian_Archipelago	841536	850736	-9200	852539	-11003
(10) Hudson_Bay	161371	234076	-72704	231544	-70173
(11) Central_Arctic	3236821	3174741	62081	3156228	80594

Overall ice extent has 212k km2 above average or 2%.  The only sizeable deficit is in Hudson Bay,  more than offset by surpluses elsewhere, especiallly in Greenland and Barents seas, along with the Central Arctic.