Arctic winter sea ice puzzle

by Judith Curry

Arctic sea ice extent has been anomalously low this winter.

A time series plot from NSIDC:

Slide1

The spatial distribution of the anomaly from NSIDC:

http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_bm_extent_hires.png

The greatest anomalies are in the European sector, specifically in the Barents Sea

To what extent are the anomalies associated with warm temperatures?  From the DMI surface temperature plot, north of 80N (from ECMWF reanalysis):

Slide1The global picture of sea surface temperature from OISST:

Slide2

So, what might be causing this particular anomaly?   Some possibilities are:

  • global warming (January 2016 was warmest Jan on record, according to the surface temperature analyses
  • multidecadal oscillations (e.g. stadium wave) predicts ice recovery to be occurring in the same region (European Arctic) where we see the sea ice decline).
  • seasonal weather circulation patterns – this has been a year with with unusual weather patterns, with both low temperature and high temperature records being set.

New paper by Goss et al.

A very interesting series of papers by a team at Penn State has come to my attention, here is the latest:

Stationary Wave Interference and Its Relation to Tropical Convection and Arctic Warming

Michael Goss, Stephen Feldstein, Sukyoung Lee

The interference between transient eddies and climatological stationary eddies in the Northern Hemisphere is investigated. The amplitude and sign of the interference is represented by the stationary wave index (SWI), which is calculated by projecting the daily 300-hPa streamfunction anomaly field onto the 300-hPa climatological stationary wave. ERA-Interim data for the years 1979 to 2013 are used. The amplitude of the interference peaks during boreal winter. The evolution of outgoing longwave radiation, Arctic temperature, 300-hPa streamfunction, 10-hPa zonal wind, Arctic sea ice concentration, and the Arctic Oscillation (AO) index are examined for days of large SWI values during the winter.

Constructive interference during winter tends to occur about one week after enhanced warm pool convection and is followed by an increase in Arctic surface air temperature along with a reduction of sea ice in the Barents and Kara Seas. The warming of the Arctic does occur without prior warm pool convection, but it is enhanced and prolonged when constructive interference occurs in concert with enhanced warm pool convection. This is followed two weeks later by a weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex and a decline of the AO. All of these associations are reversed in the case of destructive interference. Potential climate change implications are briefly discussed.

Published in Journal of Climate [abstract] [full manuscript]

I didn’t do the data analysis to see if their ideas holds up for the current sea ice blip in the Arctic, but this is clearly an interesting idea that I haven’t come across before.

Here are several other relevant papers that I’ve spotted from this group:

Attribution of the recent winter sea ice decline over the Atlantic sector of the Arctic Ocean.  Punchline: These findings suggest that most of the winter sea ice concentration trends can be attributed to changes in the large-scale atmospheric circulations.

A theory for polar amplification from a general circulation perspective.  Punchline:  this theory invokes that La-Niña-like tropical heating can help tap available potential energy and warm the Arctic by exciting poleward and upward propagating Rossby waves.

JC reflections

There are 3 factors in play regarding Arctic sea ice variations:

  • secular global warming trend
  • multidecadal variability associated with large-scale ocean oscillations
  • subseasonal weather variations associated with with weather regimes such as the MJO, AO, etc.

The amplitude of the subseasonal variations in sea ice is greater than the amplitude associated with multidecadal ocean oscillations and secular warming trend, hence invariably it is weather that is responsible for an individual blip (that may contribute to a record in sea ice extent).  The sea ice data set is inadequate for sorting out the secular global warming trend from the multi-decadal variability.

The Penn State team is making important contributions to unraveling this, in presenting some ideas that challenge ‘alarmist wisdom’ about the Arctic sea ice decline.  I look forward to following their work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

320 responses to “Arctic winter sea ice puzzle

  1. I always know what is inside a wrapped Christmas or birthday present. It’s a puzzle!
    ========

  2. There were negative AO episodes just where the sea ice extent had relative reductions from the start of January, and from the second week of February.

    “The sea ice data set is inadequate for sorting out the secular global warming trend from the multi-decadal variability.”

    I don’t see the problem, negative AO and especially negative NAO increased from the mid 1990’s, and drove the warming of the AMO and Arctic. The warm AMO is then driving further surface warming by drying continental interiors, and by lowering atmospheric water vapour altitude globally. Increased forcing of the climate increases positive AO/NAO, so some other forcing is declining and overwhelming the increase in CO2 forcing, else negative AO/NAO would have not increased. There is only one possible culprit:
    http://snag.gy/PrMAr.jpg

    • Who you gonna believe? Me, or your lyin’ ice?
      ===================

      • VTG

        The descriptions that you use and support are laughable. The use of the term “climate risk deniers” shows the stupidity of your position.

        Of course there are risks that the climate will change negatively in any location around the world. This has always been true. You have no even reasonably reliable information to tell whether the climate in any particular location will be changing in a positive of negative manner.

        You are a “climate risk denier!” The only means to reliably reduce the risk of the negative consequences of adverse weather or climate change is the construction and maintenance of robust infrastructure. How does it make sense to any sensible person to spend limited financial resources on mitigating CO2 vs. building and maintaining infrastructure???

    • Judith might have missed that the DMI 30 % ice coverage graph showed 10-year-high just before it was adjusted and discontinued. A puzzle indeed.

      • i spotted this, no idea what to make of it

      • no idea what to make of it

        Really?

        “Sceptics” hint at nefarious deeds by reputable organisation, and you don’t know what to make of it?

        http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2016/02/grasping-at-uncorrected-straws.html

      • Running a blog which not merely tolerates but encourages such conspiracy ideation does you no credit.

      • The new MO of alarmists seems to have become the cry of conspiracy ideation every time some questions their claim, points out curious event like the one with the DMI, or as much as disagrees with them. Dramagreens indeed.

      • Pethefin,

        yes, I do realise that having your insuations of conspiracy pointed out is inconvenient to you.

      • Verylowguy, the only person claiming conspiracies is you. Do you have anything intelligent to provide for this thread?

      • Pethefin,

        if you’re going to be a conspiracist, at least own your own words rather than try to wheedle out of your insinuations.

        “Other measures are high”
        “your lyin ice”
        “10-year-high just before it was adjusted and discontinued. A puzzle indeed.”

        Purleeze. Have some self respect.

      • Do you for example have an explanation to the contradicting views of the DMI in that while they define open water in the following manner:
        “The number of days of open waters for a given point is defined as the interval between the sea ice concentration falling from greater than 30% to less than, and remaining so for at least 5 days, until the ice concentration again climbs to above 30%, and stays so for at least 5 days”
        see http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/climatology_v2/frzbrkowd_mean.uk.php
        They at the same time now say that we should follow 15 % ice coverage as the measure of sea-ice. Which is it? Open water or sea-ice?

      • Verylowguy, once you started lying it became clear what you stand for. Only the last citation was from my comments, you fool. And for that comment there’s plentiful documentation if you really claim that I was wrong?

      • Pethefin,

        I thought it was obvious from the context in the thread, but yes, for absolute clarity, only the last quote is from you – the other two are previous conspiracy supporting posts immediately before yours which you built on.

        On the definition of open water, I have no opinion. Other than it isn’t a bizarre conspiracy to hide the troof.

      • Utterlowguy, you truly are a piece of work.

      • Perhaps that is is cold around the pole, enlarging the 30% ice coverage while warm around the fringes, decreasing the 15% ice coverage

      • Perhaps the 30% graph has been discontinued and shouldn’t be used anymore, as anyone can see if they ask themselves what color is the 2016 line.

      • DHR,

        read neven’s linked post. There is no puzzle, the 30% data just wasn’t correct because DMI had decided to discontinue that series and didn’t maintain the plot.

        The only puzzle is why Judith encourages these bizarre conspiracy theories.

      • Pethefin,

        Don’t waste time on vtg. He comes around to throw rocks. By throwing out terms like conspiracy ideation, he likes to believe he is a very smart hurler.

        He’s not.

      • verytallguy: “Sceptics” hint at nefarious deeds by reputable organisation, and you don’t know what to make of it?

        Me neither. It’s probably just a coincidence. According to statistician Frederick Mosteller, coincidences are much more common than seems reasonable naively. As explained, the data are still available.

      • conspiracy theory: An explanatory or speculative hypothesis suggesting that two or more persons or an organization have conspired to cause or to cover up, through secret planning and deliberate action, an event or situation typically regarded as illegal or harmful.

        conspiracy ideation: What a conspirator yells when you’ve caught them at it, REPEATEDLY, yet they still expect their actions and motives to be treated as honorable and above question. See ‘prat’

      • The Politics of Conspiracy Theory

      • Schitz,

        Well, I can only commend your honesty in at least openly saying you believe it’s a conspiracy.

        Ten out of ten for truthfulness, rather lower marks for credibility unfortunately.

      • David Springer

        One might wonder why the 30% graph was pulled instead of the 15% graph, eh? LOL

      • David Springer

        One might wonder why the 30% graph was pulled instead of the 15% graph, eh? LOL

      • DHR | February 23, 2016 at 12:29 pm |

        “Perhaps that is is cold around the pole, enlarging the 30% ice coverage while warm around the fringes, decreasing the 15% ice coverage.”

        Well, at least one person actually tried to come up with a reason, instead of tossing up red herrings. I was thinking maybe winds were compacting the ice, making it more concentrated while decreasing the extent of loose ice. The net change would be very uncertain.

        Will be interesting to see what happens in summer. More tightly packed ice at higher latitude should melt slower, wouldn’t you think?

        kim | February 23, 2016 at 6:37 am |

        “Who you gonna believe? Me, or your lyin’ ice?”

        LOL

      • Bartemis,

        there is no”reason” to come up with. The graph was wrong because it wasn’t maintained. Check the raw data…

        Dave, yeah, it’s conspiracy all the way up, I know…

      • Bartemis,

        there are some strange beliefs held around here, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a post quite so in direct contradiction of the facts.

        You claim that the maps you’ve posted show more coverage in 2016 (although you offer no quantification of this).

        Yet, visually, the 2016 graph has obviously *less* cover, directly contradicting your point.

        Look at Svalbard on the first graph. 2015, ice fast against the coast. 2016, in clear open water.

        Bizarre.

      • Bizarre, indeed. You may need to get your eyes checked. Perhaps you are wearing rose colored glasses, and missed the fact that the concentration is deeper, and the promontories wider, just about everywhere.

    • There are about three things to keep in mind as far as the low ice extent. One is that 15% may look different than 30%. The second is somewhat related. That is that one should also look at ice thickness. I believe it has been trending upward and is not as thin as in prior years. The third is that there may not be that strong of a relation between winter 15% extent and summer. 2011-2012 had very high 15% in winter and went on to have the lowest summer extent ever. Winter extent has only been decreasing at 2-3% per decade over last 35 years. Given the prevalence of apparent 60 year semi-cycles (irregular cycles), wait and see if the ice really does start to recover over the next decade.

    • No they aren’t Bartemis. For chapter & verse on the “DMIGate” story please see my interview with NASA’s Walt Meier:

      http://GreatWhiteCon.info/2016/02/dmi-masie-and-the-sea-ice-index-an-interview-with-walt-meier/

      Regarding DMI, the issue seems quite simple. The 30% plot is an older version that they stopped supporting as they transitioned to the 15% plot.

  3. Very interesting.

  4. I’ll take North Atlantic oscillation and reversal of normal Westerly wind flows for $25…

    • Agree, but also all that open water is warmer than ice, plus ice is an insulator, and there surface exchange, all leading to a lot more energy lost to space than is it was a larger extent.
      There’s only 4-6 hours a day when solar might put more energy than lost, but the rest of the time, far more is lost than gained.

  5. JC, I had been wondering your thoughts on the implications of the recent barentz/kara sea ice data for your stadium wave idea. I remember last year you were trying touse the past few years of piomas ‘data’ to suggest a start of a recovery. Clearly there is no such recent recovery on the european side, if anything things are still going in the opposite direction. So are you still happy with the Stadium wave, and are you still waiting for are ‘recovery’ on the european side?

    Thanks

    • The stadium wave is a short cycle in climate. I think it is the 60 year cycle.
      Most of what is happening to open the arctic ocean is the 1000 year cycle.
      Roman warm, cold, Medieval warm, Little Ice Age, warm again now.

  6. http://www.dmi.dk/fileadmin/Rapporter/SR/sr05-02.pdf
    The extent of ice in the North Atlantic varies in time with time scales stretching to centennial, and the cause of these variations is discussed. We consider the Koch ice index which describes the amount of ice sighted from Iceland, in the period 1150 to 1983 AD. This measure of ice extent is a non-linear and curtailed measure of the amount of ice in the Greenland Sea, but gives an overall view of the amounts of ice there through more than 800 years. [W]e find that the recently reported retreat of the ice in the Greenland Sea may be related to the termination of the so-called Little Ice Age in the early twentieth century. We also look at the approximately 80 year variability of the Koch [sea ice] index and compare it to the similar periodicity found in the solar cycle length, which is a measure of solar activity. A close correlation (R=0.67) of high significance (0.5 % probability of a chance occurrence) is found between the two patterns, suggesting a link from solar activity to the Arctic Ocean climate.

    https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/sola/6A/SpecialEdition/6A_SpecialEdition_1/_pdf
    Since the decadal variation of the AO is recognized as the natural variability of the global atmosphere, it is shown that both of decadal variabilities before and after 1989 in the Arctic can be mostly explained by the natural variability of the AO not by the external response due to the human activity.

    http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0301.1
    On the interannual time scale, ENSO and SAM are important, but a large fraction of sea ice variance can also be explained by Rossby wave–like structures in the Drake Passage region. After regressing out the sea ice extent variability associated with ENSO, the observed positive sea ice trends in Ross Sea and Indian Ocean during the satellite era become statistically insignificant. Regressing out SAM makes the sea ice trend in the Indian Ocean insignificant. Thus, the positive trends in sea ice in the Ross Sea and the Indian Ocean sectors may be explained by the variability and decadal trends of known interannual climate modes.

    • Interesting links. While reading the first paper the question rose as to whether different external forcings affect discrete parts of the globe.
      Also, whether strong correlations can be found are becoming less important to me than simply identifying evidence of large variability. Let future generations sharpen those relationships to a fine point.

  7. The Arctic ice comes and it goes. Post-Napoleonic period, 1920s, right now…less of the stuff. Late nineteenth century, 1970s…more.

    It’s a bit like the sea level thing and the temp thing: no sense in building on current trends. There’s always a current trend, but trends end. It’s true you are not living in your grandparents’ climate. What they leave out is that your grandparents were not living in their grandparents’ climate.

    Get ready for more or less, warmer or cooler, higher or lower. It’s called prudence, can’t be modelled, can’t be push-polled, can’t be fudged.

    And since so much science is modelling, push-polling and fudging these days…don’t go looking for a climate scientist with a good stock of prudence.

    Grow your own prudence. When you’ve got time and funds, dig an extra well…but dig an extra drain too.

  8. This low has been making the rounds as DMI shelve their 30% sea ice extent plot. NSIDC’s plot looks far mroe scary.

  9. The main ice deficit this year in the N Atlantic and Barrents Sea region. This winter there has been an astonishingly persistent warm SW flow across the N Atlantic into the Arctic and across W Europe and hence why W Europe is seeing one of the warmest winters for many years. This persistent SW flow was repeated previously in the last super El Nino in the winter of 97/98 where also strong warming SW wind flow persisted over the eastern N Atlantic and W Europe. I would say there is empirical evidence to suggest this persistent SW flow was related to the El Nino semi stationary convection in the Pacific, but with so few samples to choose from it is near impossible to be sure of the relationship.

  10. When oceans get warm, polar oceans thaw, this is a necessary and natural and wonderful event that is needed to provide snowfall to replenish ice on land. This happened during the Roman and Medieval warm periods, but we were not watching as closely. We do know the Vikings left Greenland because it started snowing too much. This will continue as did the Roman and Medieval warm periods continued, and then the replenished ice will advance and dump ice and ice cold water on land in into the oceans and start the next little ice age.

  11. The Arctic air has been hot for the last 4 years with increasing winter SIE 2 and 3 years ago but not last year.
    The air temperature does not seem to be an issue really, 9/10ths of the ice is underwater and the main cause for ice increase or decrease is the temperature of the adjacent water.
    Air currents and storms can compact thin ice reducing area for up to 10 days but it usually recovers.
    The DMI 30% recently removed was interesting in that it showed an increase where the 15% dipped.
    This raises the possibility that the data is being under interpreted as to ice thickness in the 15% algorithms, which all copy each other precisely.
    The proof of this pudding may be in PIOMAS and other volume studies.
    If PIOMAS is up again with 15% SIE down, which we will see in 2 weeks, then the chances are that this low SIE is spurious or weather based.
    If PIOMAS keeps going up it will be thrown under the bus next.

    • I’ve long considered ice volume to be the leading indicator of ice recovery, but every time I think about it, I come up with a different reason for its leading.
      ==================

  12. I like to look at data. Unfortunately the Argo program doesn’t seem to drop buoys in the Eastern Barents, the lack of data is a real shame. Right now there’s a single buoy north of Murmasnk giving erratic readings.

    I looked over the information I can access, and I noticed the open water is definitely too far above freezing to make a difference (it’s more or less -5 to 1 degrees in the eastern Barents).

    But I also noticed the relative humidity is really high over the ice and nearby onshore areas, which tells me it must be snowing above normal. I went and checked the Danish ice mass and thickness plot and the mass is doing fine according to their analysis. Which means the ice is thicker. The “missing ice” is mostly eastwards of the line from the White Sea to Svalbard. So the question is whether that sector is going to warm up much more than average in the spring and summer.

  13. daveandrews723

    I like the line in the Penn State team’s abstract… “Potential climate change implications are briefly discussed.” I thought the science was settled. We will all be able to sail in open water to the North Pole in the summer because of man-made global warming. At least that is what we have been told. What’s all this about “potential climate change implications”???

  14. The anomaly is indeed a blip. If you plot the last 15 years graphically it is barely discernible. Hence headlines are hype.

    • 30 % ice coverage since 1978:
      http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/climatology_v2/extent.uk.php
      does not look that dramatic.

      • Yes, 15% coverage let’s call the ice in your drink, 30% coverage a “slushy”. They focus on your drink and ignore (and discontinue) the slushy, which has twice the ice.

      • It is indeed a bit of pickle even for the DMI since they define open water in the following manner:
        “The number of days of open waters for a given point is defined as the interval between the sea ice concentration falling from greater than 30% to less than, and remaining so for at least 5 days, until the ice concentration again climbs to above 30%, and stays so for at least 5 days”
        see http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/climatology_v2/frzbrkowd_mean.uk.php
        So they say on the one hand that sea-ice concentration under 30 % coverage equals to open waters and regardless want us to follow 15 % coverage as the measure of sea-ice. Right, that makes sense

  15. Gee, a study from the State Pen… how many minutes before that dastardly Mann puts a muzzle on this anti-warmist puzzle zolver?

    The surface warming in recent decades has been most rapid in the Arctic, especially during the winter. Here, by utilizing global reanalysis and satellite datasets, it is shown that the northward flux of moisture into the Arctic during the winter strengthens the downward infrared radiation (IR) by 30–40 W m−2 over 1–2 weeks. This is followed by a decline of up to 10% in sea ice concentration over the Greenland, Barents, and Kara Seas. A climate model simulation indicates that the wind-induced sea ice drift leads the decline of sea ice thickness during the early stage of the strong downward IR events, but that within one week the cumulative downward IR effect appears to be dominant. Further analysis indicates that strong downward IR events are preceded several days earlier by enhanced convection over the tropical Indian and western Pacific Oceans. This finding suggests that sea ice predictions can benefit from an improved understanding of tropical convection and ensuing planetary wave dynamics.

    • Gee, a study from the State Pen… how many minutes before that dastardly Mann puts a muzzle on this anti-warmist puzzle zolver?

      Ya, I wonder what the department meetings are like.

      But thinning sea ice allows for greater oceanic heat content loss which can’t continue indefinitely. That may be why the last decade indicates a patter consistent with ice regrowth:
      http://climatewatcher.webs.com/Stadium2005.gif

  16. It’s certainly is a puzzle. The DMI got rid of a sea-ice chart with 30 % coverage although the otherwise build most of their sea-ice charts (at least four sets of charts found on their web-site) on the 30 % sea-ice concentration metric. In fact, they define open water in the following manner:
    “The number of days of open waters for a given point is defined as the interval between the sea ice concentration falling from greater than 30% to less than, and remaining so for at least 5 days, until the ice concentration again climbs to above 30%, and stays so for at least 5 days”
    see http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/climatology_v2/frzbrkowd_mean.uk.php
    So they say on the one hand that sea-ice concentration under 30 % coverage equals to open waters and regardless want us to follow 15 % coverage as the measure of sea-ice. Right, that makes sense.

  17. stevefitzpatrick

    Perhaps the Gross et al paper also offers an explanation for the pattern of large wintertime only anomalies, both positive and negative, for average surface temperature above ~30N. These anomalies last on the order of a month, are only present between November and March, and contribute more to variation in average global temperature
    over short periods than anything else. individual winter seasons seem to have a tendency toward dominance by either warm or cold anomalies.

  18. Looking at the Lomborg article in the Twitter link about the Paris conference 2 months ago…

    Jim Hansen, a former NASA scientist and advisor to Al Gore who was the first to put global warming on the public radar in 1988, wasn’t fooled. “It’s a fraud really, a fake,” he said in December. “It’s just worthless words.”

    So, I guess the seas will continue to rise.

    • Whether you agree with him or not, Hansen has proven he is a man of integrity. He didn’t take the easy way out and compromise his honesty. For that he is now branded a denier, go figure.

      • “Hansen has proven he is a man of integrity.”

        Not really.

        Andrew

      • Says you.

      • Sorry, Hansen abandoned integrity in 1988 when he rigged the air-con in the building prior to the senate hearing where he started this whole fiasco rolling.

        The fact that he is not happy with the wasted out Paris agreement, which is probably as close to sanity we can get after 30y of Hansen and his friends misrepresenting and tricking the science to ‘save the world’, does not increase his integrity. He is still an activist pretending to have scientific objectivity.

        Neither was all the millions he was taking while a govt employee and not allowed to make money on the side, a great sign of integrity or honestly.

        Not convinced.

      • It wasn’t Hansen it Tim Worth who opened the windows so the AC didn’t work. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/interviews/wirth.html

      • Greg, it appears you are right about gifts. Apparently the lawsuit regarding that never went anywhere. For example, consider these failures to report often elegant air and hotel/resort accommodations received on his SF278 as required by law (the amount of direct cash income received from the party providing him travel, as well, is in parentheses):
        •Blue Planet Prize ($500,000), travel for Hansen and his wife to Tokyo, Japan, 2010
        •Dan David Prize ($500,000), travel to Paris, 2007
        •Sophie Prize ($100,000), Oslo Norway, travel for Hansen and his wife, 2010
        •WWF Duke of Edinburgh Award, Travel for Hansen and his wife, London, 2006
        •Alpbach, Austria (alpine resort)(“business class”, with wife), 2007
        •Shell Oil UK ($10,000), London, 2009
        •FORO Cluster de Energia, travel for Hansen and wife (“business class”), Bilbao, Spain, 2008
        •ACT Coalition, travel for Hansen and wife to London, 2007
        •Progressive Forum ($10,000)(“first class”), to Houston, 2006
        •Progressive Forum ($10,000), to Houston, 2009
        •UCSB ($10,000), to Santa Barbara, CA
        •Nierenberg Prize ($25,000), to San Diego, 2008
        •Nevada Medal ($20,000), to Las Vegas, Reno, 2008
        •EarthWorks Expos, to Denver, 2006
        •California Academy of Science ($1,500), to San Francisco, 2009
        •CalTech ($2,000), travel to Pasadena, CA for Hansen and his wife, 2007

        So I withdraw my claim of his integrity!

      • It doesn’t matter whether the windows were involved. If you turn off the AC the heat from the bodies and the lights would quickly produce sweltering temps.

  19. Barents Sea is getting a lot of scientific attention for its role at the Arctic gateway.
    https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/barents-icicles/

    • The decadal trends were showing “accelerated” melting from the beginning of the record in 1979 until 2007. That was cause for legitimate concern.

      After 2007, the melting slowed : ie decelerated melting

      Since 2012 there are signs of a clear recovery. Not that anyone wants to talk about that though. Inconvenient data will get suppressed, and probably ‘corrected’.

      Or else we’ll be constantly directed to Antarctica, until next time there’s a marginally lower daily datum in late September some year.

    • Wait until 2017 data are in to see how the next 5.4y year cycle averages out . I think we will be seeing an upward trend, equal and opposite to the 2007-2012 segment.

  20. Extent maybe not the best metric. The islands in the Eastern Arctic appear to break up the ice leaving some holes when flow strong across them. Also, the strong poleward flow appears to compress the extent somewhat during the latest nowcast run:
    http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/hycomARC/navo/arcticictn_nowcast_anim30d.gif

    Increases would appear to depend on how much of the 3 meter ice in the Western Arctic persists and becomes a nucleus for subsequent years.

    • Turbulent Eddie: Increases would appear to depend on how much of the 3 meter ice in the Western Arctic persists and becomes a nucleus for subsequent years.

      Are there any surveys of total ice mass that you could recommend?

      • I’m sure you’ve seen any that I have. But too often people think of the rate of change term but not the advection term and the dynamics. Ice is lost because of flow ( the Fram Strait ). Ice is compressed because of flow ( the Canadian Archipelago ). And the ice front moves.

  21. “Seas Are Rising at Fastest Rate in Last 28 Centuries”

    The worsening of tidal flooding in American coastal communities is largely a consequence of greenhouse gases from human activity, and the problem will grow far worse in coming decades, scientists reported Monday.

    Those emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, are causing the ocean to rise at the fastest rate since at least the founding of ancient Rome, the scientists said. They added that in the absence of human emissions, the ocean surface would be rising less rapidly and might even be falling.

    The increasingly routine tidal flooding is making life miserable in places like Miami Beach; Charleston, S.C.; and Norfolk, Va., even on sunny days….

    Such events are just an early harbinger of the coming damage, the new research suggests….

    Scientists say the recent climate agreement negotiated in Paris is not remotely ambitious enough to forestall a significant melting of Greenland and Antarctica, though if fully implemented, it may slow the pace somewhat.

    “Ice simply melts faster when the temperatures get higher,” Dr. Rahmstorf said. “That’s just basic physics.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/science/sea-level-rise-global-warming-climate-change.html?_r=0

    • That’s all models not observations. Read the abstract.
      https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/sea-level-rise-just-the-facts/

      • RC, the Rahmstorf paper is all models. The usual nonsense from Potsdam. The Rutgers paper about 20th century most rapid rise is paleoclimate. Also provable SLR hockey stick nonsense. See just posted following comment.

      • rud, thanks for clarifying. I didn’t realize this was a double-barreled assault.

      • Ron Clutz,

        Thanks for the link.

        It’s written in plain English so that even someone like myself, who doesn’t know anything about the technical aspects of this stuff, can understand and capture the meaning.

        What interests me more than the technical aspects of all this, however, is why the “engineers of consent,” despite giving it their all, sometimes fail.

        The engineers of consent met their Waterloo, at least the first one, in the Vietnam War. Before that they believed they had the world by the tail and that the public was mere putty in their hands.

        Then it all went to hell in a handbasket:

        The only limitation to what the public relations man does comes when he discovers that the same people who perhaps can be “manipulated” to buy a certain kind of soap cannot be manipulated…to “buy” opinions and political views.

        Therefore the psychological premise of human manipulability has become one of the chief wares that are sold on the market of common and learned opinion. But such doctrines do not change the way people form opinions or prevent them from acting according to their own lights.

        [Secretary McNamara and his team] believed that politics is but a variety of public relations, and they were taken in by all the bizarre psychological premises underlying this belief….

        Image.making as global policy — victory in the battle “to win people’s minds” — is indeed something new in the huge arsenal of human follies recorded in history….

        It may be natural for elected officeholders — who owe so much, or believe they owe so much, to their campaign managers — to think that manipulation is the ruler of the people’s minds and hence the true ruler of the world….

        What is surprising is the eagerness of those scores of “intellectuals” who offered their enthusiastic help in this imaginary enterprise, perhaps because they were fascinated by the sheer size of the mental exercise it seemed to demand.

        — HANNAH ARENDT, Lying in Politics

        It looks like all the histrionics and hysteria of the Climatariat — engineers of consent par excellence — haven’t played well in Peoria either, and public opinion is not moving in the desired direction.

        http://i.imgur.com/peYGgVn.png

      • Ron Clutz wrote:

        In ancient times people built idols in their own images and worshiped them to ensure more favorable weather and prosperity. Today those icons take the form of computer models whose prophecies are sure to scare the bejesus out of us.

        Hannah Arendt also had something to say about those “computers”:

        Under normal circumstances the liar is defeated by reality, for which there is no substitute; no matter how large the tissue of falehood that an experienced liar has to offer, it will never be large enough, even if he enlists the help of computers, to cover the immensity of factuality. The liar, who may get away with any number of single falsehoods, will find it impossible to get away with lying on principle.

        This is one of the lessons that could be learned from the totalitarian experiments and the totalitarian rulers’ frightening confidence in the power of lying — in their ability, for instance, to rewrite history again and again to adapt the past to the “political line” of the present moment or to eliminate data that did not fit their ideology. Thus, in a socialist economy, they would deny that unemployment existed, the unemployed person simply becoming a non-person.

        The results of such experiments when undertaken by those in possession of the means of violence are terrible enough, but lasting deception is not among them.

        — HANNAH ARENT, Lying in Politics

      • Glenn, it may actually be worse than what Hannah is saying.
        I think it is more BS than lying, even more dangerous.
        https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2015/12/26/post-truth-climatism/

    • OT but merits a reply. Paywalled, phys.org report and abstract are not. To get 28 centuries they analyze 24 sites around the world using ‘new statistical techniques’. Last time we saw that, Mann used new statistical techniques (centered PCA) to manufacture hockey sticks. This paper manufactured an SLR hockey stick. Paleoproxies for SLR and temperature from the 24 sites for 28 centuries.. They make a big deal of showing how sensitive SLR is to temp. Their new technique found a strong decrease in SLR from 1000 to 1400, associated with a temperatue decline of 0.2C. Paleoproxies are not that temperature precise. And their interval corresponds to the MWP when temperatures rose globally (shown for example, by ikaite formation on the Antarctic penninsula). Study is worthless IMO because of this basic contradition of well established events. It is truly Mannian.

      • Abstract

        Sea level has been steadily rising over the past century, predominantly due to anthropogenic climate change. The rate of sea level rise will keep increasing with continued global warming, and, even if temperatures are stabilized through the phasing out of greenhouse gas emissions, sea level is still expected to rise for centuries. This will affect coastal areas worldwide, and robust projections are needed to assess mitigation options and guide adaptation measures. Here we combine the equilibrium response of the main sea level rise contributions with their last century’s observed contribution to constrain projections of future sea level rise. Our model is calibrated to a set of observations for each contribution, and the observational and climate uncertainties are combined to produce uncertainty ranges for 21st century sea level rise. We project anthropogenic sea level rise of 28–56 cm, 37–77 cm, and 57–131 cm in 2100 for the greenhouse gas concentration scenarios RCP26, RCP45, and RCP85, respectively. Our uncertainty ranges for total sea level rise overlap with the process-based estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The “constrained extrapolation” approach generalizes earlier global semiempirical models and may therefore lead to a better understanding of the discrepancies with process-based projections.

      • Note, new sea level post is now up

    • David Springer

      Sea level rising faster than since Rome was founded.

      Huh. What caused sea level to rise so fast 3000 years ago?

  22. Low winter ice levels were a particular feature of many of the winters in the warming arctic of 1920-1940

    tonyb

    • Easy. Another paleoproxy paper using “new statistics” to manufacture a SLR hockey stick. See a more detailed comment upthread. Better, go to the report on it at phys.org. What to you make of not just a MWP disappearance in their 24 new 28 century paleoproxies for SLR and temperature, but producing a newly discovered Medieval Cooling Period with high SLR sensitivity to temps as SLR slowed significantly? Outdid Mann, they did. There is historical (alpine tree lines) and archeological (Greenland Vikings) and physical (ikaite formation on the Antarctic penninsula) evidence that there really was a MWP, and its effects were global. Such an upside down ‘discovery’ should have been red flagged in peer review.

  23. Tony Heller’s blog recently showed an Arctic ice extent anomaly from a 1990 IPCC report that showed low levels of ice extent in 1973-74 but all the ice data currently being reported start from a high point in 1979. Cherry picking ?

    • Satellite sea ice surveillance started in 1979, coincidentally near the apex of what appears to be a ~60 oscillation. IMO nadir was 2007 since 2012 clearly result of a summer arctic clone. Arctic sea ice recovery (not steady yr-yr because of weather, but over 30 years) will be one of the big three public perception blows to CAGW. The others are the pause reprising 1950-1975 global temperature, and lack of accelerating SLR.

      • I’m skeptical of oscillations, but there does seem to be a fingerprint of sea ice.

        Lesser sea ice, greater oceanic heat is available to the surface during winter, and more latent heat of freezing means higher Arctic winter temperatures.

        Greater sea ice, less oceanic heat is available, less latent heat of freezing released, means lower Arctic winter temperatures.

        Summer temperatures may exhibit the opposite trend because of the uptake of latent heat from melting.

        These changes do exhibit some oscillation:
        climatewatcher.webs.com/ArcticFingerprint.png

      • TE, essay Northwest Passage gave substantial qualitative historical evidence for this, with footnote references. It also discussed the reliability problems with satellite summer ice measurement using microwaves caused by meltwater pools. Recently determined h/t Ron Clutz that MASIE has finer resolution because incorporates optical observations, and uses 40% ice not 10 or 15. IMO a better product for summer ice extent. Only available from 2006, but showing no deterioration and arguably recent recovery. A 15% ice metric means 85% open water is counted as ‘ice’; far too influenceable by wind, wave, and current.

      • ristvan:Arctic sea ice recovery (not steady yr-yr because of weather, but over 30 years) will be one of the big three public perception blows to CAGW. The others are the pause reprising 1950-1975 global temperature, and lack of accelerating SLR.

        I think you have presented the right time frame. If ever there was a case to be made for Normal Science, this is the time: steady, persistent, patient progress on all frontiers of climate science. The papers presented today are instances of Kuhn’s “puzzle solving” attribute of Normal Science.

      • Has anyone calculated the difference in Arctic sea ice trends if you remove the Sea of Okhotsk from the mix?

      • Ristvan, satellite surveillance did start in 1973, see 1990 IPCC Report WG1 p. 224, and 1996 WG1 p. 150 where they say
        “3.2.5.3 Sea ice extent and mass
        Neither hemisphere has exhibited significant trends in sea ice extent since 1973 when satellite measurements began (Figure 3.8).”

      • E.Martin/Ristvan/Ron Clutz – I suggest you read the Walt Meier interview I linked to upthread. That may help clear up some misconceptions for you.

  24. If you’re talking cycles, you’re mixing units to discuss lows and highs. You’re either in the frequency domain or the time domain, not both.

    • rhhardin: You’re either in the frequency domain or the time domain, not both.

      For a stationary process they are interconvertible. The equations can be found in W. Fuller, “Introduction to Statistical Time Series”.

      • Stationary gaussian. This is complicated a little by the frequency resolution, that is by the time extent represented, the process being represented by a limit to zero and infinity respectively, during which none of the spectral lines are stable, only the expected value of their square.

        So a new peak is a problem to discuss in terms of spectrum. That piece of spectrum could be zero if more of the process were taken into account.

        This complexity is for the simplest case, a stationary gaussian process. Even more bets are off if either word is dropped, the worst word to drop being gaussian.

      • Gaussian stationary is nice an easy to assume. I do not see any discussion of why that is a valid assumption or why they chose it.

        Without discussing the assumptions and thier validity ( or limitations ) all the fancy formulae are just like voodoo masks to scare off unwary prying eyes.

      • It’s more that the spectrum and fourier analysis are tools. They’re not good at understanding the limitations of the tools, though.

        Say how the properties they have fail to mean anything when the proper assumptions are no longer true.

  25. Thank you for the 3 new papers.

    About this: A theory for polar amplification from a general circulation perspective. Punchline: this theory invokes that La-Niña-like tropical heating can help tap available potential energy and warm the Arctic by exciting poleward and upward propagating Rossby waves.

    Is there an explanation why polar amplification is occurring at only one pole? That sounds like a part of an explanation for a net southerly to northerly heat transport.

    • Many point to this 1980 paper by Manabe as the first identification of ‘Arctic Amplification’. In it, he identifies the difference of albedo feedback between Arctic and Antarctic. The Antarctic is land, much of it above 2000m high which doesn’t melt and thus doesn’t have albedo feedback while reduction of Arctic sea ice would invoke surface albedo feedback.

      It’s not clear that what’s happening now is related to global warming. In Manabe’s paper, the scenario was of a quadrupling of CO2, so some portion of Arctic events may be unrelated.

      Also, the albedo change in that 1980 paper may be way off ( it was 1980, after all ). Below is Figure 15 of that paper compared with GISS models for quadrupling of CO2. Clearly, GISS indicate much less albedo reduction and even albedo increase around the ITCZ. There’s no guarantee that GISS would be correct either, but it’s much less than earlier:

      http://climatewatcher.webs.com/SW_Manabe_GISS.png

      • TE

        Arctic amplification was known about in the 1820’s and was a hot topic during the 1920-1940 arctic warming. That period was also typified by low winter sea ice levels at times, as can be evidenced in these extracts from my article ‘historic variations in arctic ice part 2’

        —- —- ——

        “Additional scientific information comes from the 1971 book ’Times of Feast, Times of Famine-A History of Climate since the year 1000’ by Dr Emmanuel le Roy Ladurie-a renowned French historian- page 82 onwards, which here references information on the various recent waves of warming;


        “The most spectacular amelioration is that of arctic or sub arctic regions, the areas at the extreme limit of Nordic colonization from Greenland to Spitzbergen . In the 1930’s Scherlag diagnosed a winter amelioration November-March of plus 5 degrees C at jakobshavn (Greenland) comparing the periods 1883-1892 and 1923-1932. At Spitsbergen the winter increase reached the phenomenal height of 8 to 9 deg C in the decade 1930 as compared with the normal for 1912-1926.”

        It continues;


        ‘the tendency toward amelioration in the present century in the USSR, varying greatly in degree from the Ukraine to Siberia, was observed just before the last war and by Rubinstein in 1956 (with) mainly the winter months affected. The tendency is more pronounced in northern areas like the Barents sea, the shores of the Arctic ocean and the estuaries of the Ob and Yenisey rivers. Mitchells curves (showing temperature anomalies from 100 stations, one of the precursors to Giss) (demonstrate) there is indeed a world amelioration particularly in winter. It affects principally the Arctic and (secondly) the cold and temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere including the US, Europe and Siberia. Thirdly it affects the tropics and finally in a much less perceptible way the temperate zones of the Southern Hemisphere…..”

        —- —— —-

        tonyb

      • Arctic amplification is baloney Tony, increased forcing of the climate cools the Arctic region in an interglacial climate, because it increases *positive* NAO/AO.

      • What are you calling baloney? The data, the name , some interpretation of what it means or its causes?

        Some of the temperatures may be baloney projection of land temps out over water and junk like that, but there does seems to more warming that at lower latitudes.

        Much of that may be due to changing amounts of water vapour and changes in enthalpy that are also getting brushed aside in the non physical statistics of playing with temperatures as though they were a linearly additive quantity.

  26. Absolute amounts of older ice do appear to be increasing since the 2007 minimum. Remains to be seen the duration for which that continues:
    http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/images/indicator_figures/sea-ice-figure2-12-2015.png

  27. IMO (sigh) the data is not of sufficient length and reliability to draw conclusions about climate trends for the next 10 to 100 years. There seems to be a number of cycles at work, the combined effect of which is reflected as short term variability but as to whether causation is mainly anthropogenic or not remains moot.

    • Quite clearly 35 years of data from a system with a significant 60y periodicity is insufficient to understand what has already happened, let alone start projecting.

      One thing that is clear is that the “accelerating melting” that occurred for 1997 to 2007 has stopped accelerating and is now decelerating, so all the talk of having reached a tipping point is out of the window. Once you reach a tipping point you can’t slow down, by definition.

      A vase that has started to tip does not pause for thought half way down.

  28. Judith,

    I have now ploughed through the whole thread. Whilst there has been mention of Rossby waves nobody has mentioned wind driven swells in general, or “Strom Frank” in particular. Take a look at this video:

    https://youtu.be/X2gKvHiab94

    Convincing evidence? Or not?

    • Whoops! r/Strom/Storm/

      • Thanks Jim, an excellent illustration of why even ice concentration metric of 30 % might be questionable measurement metric, not to mention the 15 % concentration. The 15 % concentration is simply to prone to changes in wind, storm and sea current (http://www.bjerknes.uib.no/en/article/nyheter/barents-sea-warms-behind)
        etc. conditions in order to give as a meaningful picture of the multi-year sea-ice, which of course is the reason why the DMI prefers (at the moment at least) the 30 % concentration for long-term analysis of Arctic sea-ice:
        http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/climatology_v2/extent.uk.php

      • My pleasure Pethefin,

        Have you read my interview with Walt Meier yet? Here’s a pertinent brief extract, though there are others:

        Regarding DMI, the issue seems quite simple. The 30% plot is an older version that they stopped supporting as they transitioned to the 15% plot.

        For some unknown reason the data you link to seems to be somewhat sparse for 2015 and 2016? Why do you suppose that might be?

      • Meier says nothing new, that topic is a dead-end, we can respectfully agree to disagree.
        The DMI is not exactly informative about their products, so no idea. I assume they update products like the long-term sea-ice extent only once a year or so. Now, with the changed priorities of DMI in terms of the 30 % ice coverage, it remains to be seen whether they will discontinue even this (and other products) too.

  29. Walt Meier may well not be saying anything new, which speaks volumes (IMHO!).

    For example he contradict’s Ron Clutz’s “idiosyncratic” cherry picking of his learned journal articles:

    Since the quantity and quality of [MASIE] data varies the time series will not be consistent over time.

    Now, is there any chance we can discuss the impact of (ocean) “waves” on Arctic sea ice or are you going to continue flogging your DMI dead horse?

    • You are talking to the wrong guy, I’ve have no interest in the MASIE debate of yours.
      You have difficulty of understanding the concept of agreeing to disagree? I know that alarmists have difficulty of accepting the fact that there should be freedom of thought, but it never ceases to amaze me. You’re are the one flogging dead horses. Or do you really deny that this DMI product: http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/climatology_v2/extent.uk.php
      is built upon the 30 % concentration metric? Come on, enough already.

      • Pethefin,

        You seem to be the one who has difficulty comprehending (with apologies to Monty Python) the bleedin’ obvious. “DMIGate” is as dead as the Dodo. It’s fallen off its perch. It’s pushing up the dasies.

        Do you deny that at all the links you so helpfully provide there is no data available for either 2015 or 2016? If so please provide a link to some live DMI 30% threshold extent data from 2015 or 2016.

        Thanks for your cooperation. Now about those waves……

      • Oh phleassse, if you want to an intelligent discussion stop playing. No one has claimed that the other DMI graphs have data from 2015 or 2016.

        As for waves, I have already explained my view in terms of wind, storms etc. Again the only thing we can do is to respectfully agree to disagree, oh I forgot, you don’t actually know what that means, so over and out.

      • No one has claimed that the other DMI graphs have data from 2015 or 2016.

        Q.E.D?

        Do you deny that I politely asked for Judith’s views on “waves”, and then you butted in with the “DMIGate” Dodo?

        Am I correct in working on the assumption that you are not in actual fact Judith in a cunning disguise?

      • Wow, LOL.

  30. For all those obsessed by the now sadly deceased DMI 30% concentration threshold Arctic sea ice extent metric, you’ll no doubt be overjoyed to learn that they’ve just published their explanation for the “artifact”:

    http://GreatWhiteCon.info/2016/02/the-dmigate-dodo-is-pushing-up-the-daisies/

    • Jim

      I have only caught the tail end of this conversation. By ‘waves’ you presumable mean ocean waves that can break up the ice?

      I live by the sea in southern England and waves can scour a beach here overnight depending on their size, longevity and direction. It also depends on the state of the tide. A spring tide with a persistent easterly will do considerable damage and no doubt the same principle applies in the arctic.

      A year or two back I tried to get together tide tables for the arctic, both modern and historic. They don’t seem easy to come by, although I found one for 1913.

      It would be worthwhile trying to correlate tides with storms etc as that would be a good pointer for the likely extent of ice break up

      tonyb

    • Thanks Jim for the heads up. Now the DMI has done what it should have done to begin with.

      • Pethefin,

        perhaps you should reflect on how you should have behaved to start with, rather than promulgating bizarre conspiracies

      • Uttelylowguy, lying again.

      • Here’s a link to the long-awaited explanation from the DMI:
        http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/iceextent_disagreement_is_an_artifact.uk.php
        The most important part is the following:
        “The increasing sea ice extent that is caused by the new coast mask is not great during summer, because sea ice has a relative short line of contact with land during summer. But the new and finer coast mask will result in increasingly more sea ice, compared to previous years during winter, as the coast line with sea ice contact is increasing. This is the reason for an increasing sea ice extent during current freeze-up period, relative to previous winters. A comparison of the 2015/2016 sea ice extent with previous years does therefore not make sense (see figure 1-left). ”

        In other words, the old algorithm was not broken as such, but no one remembered to update it to the new and finer costal mask.

      • “Here’s a link to the long-awaited explanation from the DMI:”

        LONG AWAITED?

        Anyone who has worked with satellite data, especially arctic satellite data,
        and ESPECIALLY data that requires a land mask ( hint guess what I am working on today ) wasn’t the least bit confused or in question about the
        30% data. And we were not “awaiting” an explanation.

        The only people waiting for an explanation were

        1. People who never have worked with this kind of data.
        2. people who believe in conspiracies.

      • Utterlylowguy, has become compulsive in lying. I feel sorry for you.

        Steven, you are right that I do not work with satellite data. Since you do, how come you never mentioned that you “knew” that the problem was changed masking?

      • And still, pethefin,

        1) you supported a conspiracy theory
        2) you’ve been shown wrong
        3) your reaction is throwing insults and name calling.

        The more you carry on, the more obvious it is. It’s very unimpressive.

        Own your words.

      • Utterlylowguy, you still have not found a single comment of mine to back up your lies. Compulsive as I said.
        How was I wrong in asking for an explanation that the DMI did provide, and even apologized? You truly are a piece of work.
        I don’t suffer liars like you lightly, so cry me a river.
        No matter how many times you lie, the lie does not become true, except in your head. Now over and out in terms of you.

      • Pethefin,

        Your conspiracy was non existent.

        Your inability to engage in discourse without throwing insults is telling.

  31. Pethefin,

    Have you no shame? DMI told everyone with eyes to see, well in advance, that their 30% threshold metric was no longer supported:

    http://GreatWhiteCon.info/2016/02/gross-deception-about-dmis-missing-graph/

    Are you going to deny that too?

    • You have completely missed the point, which the DMI admits in their explanation: they should have explained the changes in their methodology. Why is it that fanatic alarmists like you react to any criticism like fanatic religious react to blasphemy?

      • It looks to me like you’re the one that’s “completely missed the point” Pethefin. Is there any chance that you (or failing that the webmaster) can cut out the ad homs in future?

        You said:

        No one remembered to update it to the new and finer costal mask.

        That’s not what happened:

        Because of the deprecated status of the old plot in the past year, DMI has not been monitoring these irregularities. The old plot should, of cause [sic], have been removed when the mask was replaced. DMI apologizes for the confusion and inconvenience this has caused.

        What “no one remembered to do” was “remove the deprecated old plot when the mask was replaced”.

        Is that clear now?

      • “You have completely missed the point, which the DMI admits in their explanation: they should have explained the changes in their methodology. Why is it that fanatic alarmists like you react to any criticism like fanatic religious react to blasphemy?”

        the “failure” to explain in no way justifies the conclusions that too
        many people jumped to, including you.

        far too many skeptics leapt to conclusions about the guilt and sins of the believers.

        In my mind that is far worse, since the skeptics religion, demands that they avoid making comments where they have no knowledge.

        Of course those of us who actually work with data could see the data was wrong on its face.

      • Steven, I have merely been asking for a scientific explanation and on a separate note pointing out that the DMI had several other products relying on the 30 % concentration and wondering whether they will dish those too. You know as well as I do that criticism, skepticism and questioning of scientific methodologies are the oxygen of science. Science is no “safe-space” where all people sign hallelujah, quite the contrary and for a good reason.
        The DMI finally gave an explanation and even an apology, which of course angers the fanatic alarmists.

      • And Steven, before you jump any further here’s a reminder of what scientist do when they see methodology they don’t accept as scientific, just listen to what one Richard Muller says here:

  32. @pethefin
    That comment just pegged the needle on the irony meter and you are now guilty of projecting on an IMAX scale.

    • Lawrence Martin February 25, 2016 at Great White Con
      “The link I posted has recieved 7 clicks so far but a grand total of zero replies. I read that thread at JC’s and was reminded why I haven’t been there in almost 4 years.
      As bad as the level of discourse was four years ago, this thread makes the old days seem civil and enlightened. Doesn’t J.C. realize maroons [ http://bit.ly/1Qgflr8 ] like angech, pethefin and the putz called clutz arguing their nonsensical gibberish on her blog dimishes her already tarnished stature in the science community?”

  33. This is a Michael Mann Mickey Mouse excuse that they mistakenly spliced two different data algorithm graphs together.
    The DMI is not that dumb, but their excuse is.

  34. Thanks Steven Mosher | February 25, 2016
    So much wrong with this attempted explanation/excuse/dodge.
    “caused by a new and higher resolution coast mask.”
    Why were they applying a new mask update to an old offline graph in the first place unless they were still actively using it?
    What was the rational or lack thereof in using it?
    Why did they not adjust all the past data with the new coastal mask for all 11 years?
    That is what one normally does when applying a new technique.
    This is a Michael Mann Mickey Mouse excuse that they mistakenly spliced two different data algorithm graphs together.
    The DMI is not that dumb, but there excuse is.
    “The elevated sea ice extent in the data from the old extent algorithm was an artifact”?
    No it was either the sea ice extent one would get if using a new and higher resolution coast mask or it was the real graph if the old algorithm was used and 30% ice was increasing.
    “DMI removal of the old sea ice extent graph was done at an unfortunate time, [sure was] namely, during a period where it seemed that the new and old ice extent plots disagreed .”
    No the problem was that the old graph 2015 data was higher than the 2014 and had been going up for 3 months.Nothing to do with the 15% graph which never agreed with the 30% graph
    “Because of the deprecated status of the old plot in the past year, DMI has not been monitoring these irregularities.”
    So why did DMI choose to apply a new screen to a deprecated status old plot in summer in the first place ? If they were interested enough to apply a change in the first place they must have been monitoring it quite closely.
    If they were not monitoring it why introduce a new graph in the first place
    “The old plot should, of cause, have been removed when the mask was replaced.”
    Why?
    The old plot should have been updated so it was all contiguous and treated equally. Like Mosher’s mates do all the time with their temperature data changes. Adjusting the past records when you introduce a new modifier is Standard Practice for all meteorological procedures. And it is only 11 years data..
    “http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/iceextent_disagreement_is_an_artifact.uk.php
    Sea Ice extent – explanation on an apparent divergence between algorithms.
    DMI apologizes for the confusion and inconvenience this has caused”.
    DMI should apologise for this lame excuse of a lame excuse.

    • You come across a bit confused.

      I think you’re saying it *is* a conspiracy, yes?

      • VTG

        angech pointed out this graph problem some time ago, over on Lucia’s.

        Still, he will never understand that DMI don’t owe him or anthony an explanation.

        It’s pretty simple: you are damned if you don’t post every last bit of data
        ( As I now know all too well)
        you are damned if you do post all the data and dont give immediate answers to everyone who asks.

        you are damned if you ever make a mistake…and yes all science is about making fewer and fewer mistakes.. so they are anti science

        and now you are damned if you apologize

      • “What I find harder to understand is why someone like Judith encourages them.”

        You’re an a$$ VTG She does nothing of the sort.

      • timg

        You’re an a$$ VTG She does nothing of the sort.

        Off course she does timg. In this thread, read her response to the insinuation that DMI were engaged in a conspiracy.

        More generally, ask yourself why thread after thread here is full of weird theories of fraud and conspiracy to hide the troof.

        It’s her blog.

      • Q.E.D. VTG?

      • Whence reigns mercy, from me or your cryin’ ice?
        =================

  35. Wow, I am really moving up in the world and now have my own low information, semi-literate stalker called angech.
    Wait until I tell the folks at home, they will be so impressed.
    /snark: off

  36. @ Steven Mosher
    Can I cut in line behind you or do I have to go all the way to the back of the line?

  37. Steven Mosher | February 25, 2016 at 3:45 pm |
    “angech pointed out this graph problem some time ago, over on Lucia’s.”
    Thanks for remembering , Steve
    “Still, he will never understand that DMI don’t owe him or Anthony an explanation.”
    Do DMI owe an explanation to anyone?
    Yes,
    To me or Anthony, no.
    Small fry.
    Perhaps to Scientists, Arctic researchers, Climate scientists, Meteorologists and the Danish people.
    Perhaps not.
    “you are damned if you ever make a mistake”
    Usually reserved for big mistakes, like Enron.
    “and now you are damned if you apologize.”
    Only if you are the Catholic church.
    The Chart went “wrong” 6 months ago.
    It started to show higher amounts of ice, it must be wrong.
    No comment at any stage from 6 months ago that there had been a change in the way of presenting grahs. The graph was not updated before Christmas for 2-3 weeks, people noticed.
    The DMI said “The person [singular] responsible for the graphs was away for 2 weeks holiday.
    Convenient?
    Most other ice sets were late updating as well so just no one in the office.
    15 % came on line, then 30%
    Anthony links to it on his sea ice charts, hundreds of people notice it and talk. It runs for 1 week? and then disappears.
    The reason “it’s an outdated graph and due to take down”
    It had been running happily, ice getting slowly higher for 2 years.
    People fuss and another reason pops up out of the blue.
    Very good logically on the maths
    Make a reason for that increase.
    Volkswagon cleverness
    ” We are using a new mask giving greater ice area.”
    Problems
    Why take 7 months to explain,
    ‘Why hide behind rubbish excuses originally
    Why update 7 months ago an outdated graph unless you meant to keep on using it.
    Why splice a new graph onto the end of an old graph 7 months ago.
    Lance Armstrong [I like Lance by the way, absolutely crucified],
    Volkswagen,
    Climate science malfeasance.
    A perfect trifecta.
    Why bother with a conspiracy theory when you have real crooks .

  38. @Steven Moher
    “What’s so hard to understand?”
    Reality and anything not created in what my old friend Reggie Perrin calls their Wingnut Alternate Reality (or WAR for short).

    • Reasonable people know who the real Wingnuts are. All readers wear Big Boy Pants. We don’t need a truth posse like you and the other leading candidates for Social Psychology Case Studies. Just curious, do you guys lay awake all night worrying about this stuff? Wonderful counseling services are available everywhere.

  39. Can anyone tell me why the long-term climate results of this paper do not apply to the Northern Hemisphere just like they apply to the Southern Hemisphere?

    The decadal standing wave-like patterns that appear in the mid-latitudes in the mean atmospheric sea level pressure anomalies and the sea-surface temperature anomalies should also take place in the Northern hemisphere. Of course, the standing wave-like patterns may be partially distorted or disrupted by the much greater prevalence presence of continental masses but they should still be present.

    Wilson, I.R.G., Long-Term Lunar Atmospheric Tides in the
    Southern Hemisphere, The Open Atmospheric Science Journal,
    2013, 7, 51-76
    http://benthamopen.com/contents/pdf/TOASCJ/TOASCJ-7-51.pdf

  40. @PA
    The so called food fight is about Watts, Clutz and other pseudo science bloggers and their conspiacy ideation regarding a discontinued graph.

    What is even more interesting is that Watts. Clutz and Homewood deleted comments that were 100% factual, banned the commenters and then proceeded to delete all comments from other bloggers as well as themselves if those comments mentioned the ones already deleted. It sounds unbelievable but it is true and the comments sent down the memory hole have been archived for posterity.

    • Lawrence Martin,

      What you describe has been the practice of the alarmist web sites for a decade – i.e. ban those that question the CAGW meme.

      • Huh?

        the worst of the lot was RC. They change their approach.

        WUWT used to be great about allowing comments through when charles the moderator was doing the moderation.

        he worked tirelessly. I know I watched him every day.

        But since he left the whole comment section has deteriorated.

        It used to be good to have a place to debate/ inform/ and yes have good old food fights.

        Now?

        I lot has changed. Those of us who followed anthony from day zero are probably in a better position to judge.

    • Everybody has been misusing extent charts to make irrelevant points. The warmers use it to cry “we’re melting” and the anti-warmers have been pushing back.

      Ice extent by definition can be up to 85% water (in this case apparently 70% water) and I’m not sure what that tells you about sea ice.

      Because of questionable data manipulation in the past whenever a change is made, one side or the other or both jump on you.

      What is even more interesting is that Watts. Clutz and Homewood deleted comments that were 100% factual, banned the commenters and then proceeded to delete all comments from other bloggers as well as themselves if those comments mentioned the ones already deleted.

      Try making skeptical comments on a warmer site. A 100% factual comment can be misleading and I suspect some long food fights broke out. I can read the comments and see that people are excited.

      Both sides were using these graphs to make invalid points. I just can’t get excited about measuring sea slush.

      The nice thing about Climate Etc. is that the good Dr. other than calling personal fouls or stopping half hour victory dances, lets the players play.

      • PA – Do you by any chance have any hard evidence to back up your assertion concerning “questionable data manipulation” of sea ice metrics? If so I’d love to see it!

        If you can’t “get excited about measuring sea slush” can you perhaps understand why others might “get excited” about blatant censorship?

    • David Springer

      A vast right wing conspiracy ideation.

      Interesting how times have both changed and not changed. Does the added word really improve the old saw from Hillybilly?

      I think the conspiracy is all Lew’s.

  41. @ Jim Hunt @ Lawrence Martin

    You two guys are quite the pieces of work. You both operate under multiple identities. Jim Hunt has three I have been able to identify, Lawrence Martin/Martinez has two.

    Both of you post off topic or disrupt threads with the sort of unsubstantiated nonsense you post above, and both demand to have these off topic comments heard and then play the “look Watts is censoring me!” game when your comments don’t meet our site comment policy and/or are abusive in nature.

    Case in point- here you are making abusive off-topic comments on Dr. Curry’s site.

    Plain and simple, if you comment under different identities, post off topic and/or thread disruptive comments you don’t get to participate. Mr. Hunt was warned months ago, yet he still persists in trying to get comments through under other identities such as V2G.

    As for the ridiculous assertion that the Scalia {thread had to be closed to save embarasment.}

    It’s still open, and was never closed and still has the “leave a comment” form at the bottom. Easily verified by following the link you provided. http://bit.ly/1n0SsfD
    Any thread that is closed will always have a note. This one was never closed nor does it have any note about it. Comments do close automatically two weeks after the post is made, and has been that way for years. You can’t even get the simplest of accusations correct.

    Both of you fellows haven’t been playing by our site rules, so WUWT is under no obligation to carry your comments.

    Feel free to be as upset as you wish.

    My apologies to Dr. Curry for having to clutter this thread further to deal with these two.

    • Anthony,

      Here’s a suggestion for you. Why don’t you release all my comments from the WUWT “moderation queue” and let others be the judge of how “off topic” and/or “abusive” they are?

      Feel free to let others see how many so called “multiple identities” I’ve been masqeurading under too, and all the ways in which my multiple personalities have failed to “abide by your site rules”

      It’s one thing to pop in here and make such accusations. It’s quite another matter to actually provide some evidence to back them up.

      Please do so at your earliest convenience.

      Thanks in anticipation.

      • David Springer

        Why don’t you move along to somewhere that might value your opinions?

      • We’ll just take a vote on your lame ass participation here, jimmie.

      • David/Don – Alternatively perhaps Anthony could provide some actual evidence for his allegations?

        Or there again, perhaps he can’t?

      • David Springer

        You’ve already proven Watts’ case by insisting on polluting this sea ice thread with your off-topic unrelated problems at another blog. Duh.

        http://snag.gy/Zq1vG.jpg

      • David,

        I came here to discuss the effects of “long fetch swells” on Arctic winter sea ice.

        What are you doing here?

      • Jim Hunt: Why don’t you release all my comments from the WUWT “moderation queue” and let others be the judge of how “off topic” and/or “abusive” they are?

        He explained why not.

      • Yes, long fetch swells here aplenty; time for some to come about.
        ================

      • Hey, I’m still arguing that vulcanism in the Gakkel Ridge opened a hole in the Arctic ocean in the late ’90s, covered by clouds, photos of which are still classified.

        I’d like to see whether those clouds are usual for the frozen over Arctic, or if they arose from the open water, concealing the break.
        =================

      • Matthew – In which case please enlighten me, since I have obviously failed to appreciate some subtlety in Anthony’s argument.

      • Subtle? Antnee’s often more like Thor.

        Behold the cavil on the anvil. ‘Tis such a pretty piece.
        =================

      • Kim, that’s another great conspiracy theory. Are you for real or a Poe?

      • Nope, sorry, no conspiracy. No one’s made an effort to declassify those photos. This one is just a hobby horse of mine.

        I’m curious to have a meteorologist examine them, though. The argument is that the vulcanism could not have been expressed at the surface. Whaddya say we check? This one is easy.
        ========================

      • Jim Hunt: I have obviously failed to appreciate some subtlety in Anthony’s argument.

        No. You just disagree without wanting to say where or why or how.

    • David Springer

      How has it been “proved wrong” that he DMI 30% ice graph was chosen for removal for reasons that don’t arouse suspicion? It seems impossible to prove that when the 15% graph showed declining ice, the 30% showed increasing ice, and the 30% was the one chosen for removal. Why not discontinue the 15% graph instead? I think we both know why but if you don’t you’re stupid and if you do you’re dishonest. I think we both know which of those two conclusions is the correct one too, eh? LOL

    • Dave,

      so you still think it is a conspiracy. Can’t say I’m surprised.

      I wonder how many more here want to “out” themselves as conspiracy theorists. Maybe we should invite Lewandowsky along later to quantify it, might be a paper in it?

    • Definitely a conspiracy, verytrollguy. Now jump up and down a squeal like a good Chicken Little. Tell us how our conspiracy ideations bolster the case for CAGW.

    • Hi Don. Good to see you piling on. I think Lew answered your question a while ago.

    • David – Are you suffering from acute snow blindness too, just like poor Paul Homewood? Try reading this if you haven’t already. Try reading it again if you have:

      http://GreatWhiteCon.info/2016/02/gross-deception-about-dmis-missing-graph/

    • David Springer

      Update: I found where a DMI researcher responsible for the ice extent products says the 30% graph was erroneous due to the introduction of a new coastline mask.

      So instead of fixing the mistake he decided to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

      I’d suggest after such a display of incompetence and then sloth what should be discontinued is the DMI researcher instead of the DMI 30% ice product.
      .

    • David Springer

      vtg – conspiracies really do happen. But it takes more than one person and in this case it appears only one person was responsible for the 30% ice extent product. No conspiracy possible in that case just a case of, if you’ll forgive me using yet another pop psychology fad phrase, “motivated reasoning” by one individual.

      Thanks for playing of course. Better luck next time.

    • David,

      Evidently you are suffering from snow blindness. Do you know the drill by now?

      http://GreatWhiteCon.info/2016/02/the-dmigate-dodo-is-pushing-up-the-daisies/

    • Citing that clown lewandumpski proves that you alarmists are not credible people, verytrollguy.

    • What’s up Don, Lew a bit too close to the truth for comfort?

      This thread’s another great example of conspiratorial thinking and it’s correlation to science rejection, don’t you think?

      Time to invite him over yet or should we give some more denizens time to emerge from the closet first?

    • A madness of the herd, yet there are those who’ve breathed and bellowed together. But Schneider, a brave one, took himself over the cliff early.
      ====================

    • Let’s say that you and your phony pal lewandumpski can find a million or two denizens who exhibit what you clowns have labeled ‘conspiracy ideation’, verytrivialguy. So freaking what? That is not evidence that AGW is the greatest threat faced by mankind. That ain’t freaking science. The fact that lewandumpski get’s that crap published and it is gleefully trumpeted by your crowd just proves your lack of scientific integrity. If you people weren’t so infected by confirmation bias and noble cause corruption, many of you would be ashamed of yourselves.

  42. Thanks, Anthony.
    Someone had to tell them.
    I played some competition bridge in the city (Melbourne) when I was younger. Country kid in the big smoke. Marked 3 passes and then went to the second line missing a space on the top line. Director called to ask if there was a hidden meaning to my skipping a space.
    Never knew then that that people cheated.
    But those two guys thought it, obviously.
    So they must have known it or tried it.
    Plus tossed in the intimidation for free.
    Some comments above by those two remind me of those card players.

  43. David Springer

    Go away. This is a winter sea ice thread. By inserting yourself here off-topic you’ve proven Watts’ assertion that you don’t stay on topic. Duh. What an asshat.

  44. David Springer

    I’m going to hurl chunks if I read that stoopid “conspiracy ideation” term one more time. What group of phucking retards came up with that?

    • What is it with those that engage in conspiracy ideation like yourself Dave, that they also seem unable to contain themselves from inchoate rage and insults?

      There seems to be a strong correlation.

    • Stars of the Silver Screen. Painted ladies, whirring projectors, Zebras not liking each others’ hats, all but Bill’s Ambers.
      ==============

  45. Suddenly ALMOST all of my comments were returned to WUWT, curiouser and curiouser, cried Alice.
    Keep digging Anthony, the cover-up is often worse than the “crime”.

    • We could see the emails but the pigeons pecked ’em up once the cat was set among them.
      =============

    • David Springer

      They were never gone. You had what’s called a “retard moment”. Maybe a whole day, week, or lifetime. That’s yet to be determined.

  46. David Springer
    Actually you have proved my assertion with your conspiracy ideation regarding the depracated DMI graph. Let us put aside DMIGate, that Dodo is pushing up daisies. Do you have anything else that shows a rebound in the northern hemisphere ice since the start of this year?

  47. One thing’s fo sho…

    Ice Melters are a particularly crazy breed of Warmer.

    Andrew

    • Consider the dynamic; all that gorgeous melting and then the damn stuff just freezes back up again, over and over and over. That might warp the most rock-bound.

      I insist, though, that Sisyphus could content himself. These just ought to learn to chill.
      ===============

    • “These just ought to learn to chill.”

      I’m sayin’. Melting down like cubes of ice in anomalously hot climates if they are too warm.

      Andrew

    • David Springer

      Ice huggers are the new tree huggers.

      • I wonder if the ice huggers do what the tree huggers did in the 1970s. They would go up to the wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for 2 weeks with 1 pair of underpants and a 5 dollar bill and change neither.

  48. Jim Hunt | February 26, 2016 at 10:49 am
    “David, I came here to discuss the effects of “long fetch swells” on Arctic winter sea ice. What are you doing here?”

    My guess is that he is here acting as a troll trying to derail honest open discourse between individuals here to discuss the current state of arctic ice.

  49. @Don Monfort
    I am assuming that you didn’t actually bother to read any of the content at Jim”s blogs. Since Xmas, Jim and other bloggers at the ASIB predicted three storms with hurricaine strength winds that hit the north Atlantic as well as anomalously warm temps north of 80 degrees, several days before othe sites got a clue.
    Your type seem to prefer echo chambers like WUWT and steve goggard’s troll central blog, where science takes a back seat to political ideology. Nothing better than a good gish gallop from a science troll like the discount viscount, chris monckton. Heaven forbit if you were to read things that make you think.

    • You are correct on one count, lame little larry. Like virtually all the other 7 point something billions of folks in the world, I don’t read esoteric speculative BS about arctic this-and-that on little obscure warmist blogs. I occasionally read a post on WUWT (Anthony banned me for scourging his little pal Willis) and have never to my recollection stopped in to peruse Goddard’s BS.

      I will soon depart for the great Southwest to help the The Donald kick the also ran’s little buttocks up between their ears. I am sure you and the others in your gaggle of annoying little arctic trolls will be gone when I get back.

      • David Springer

        You’re backing the wrong horse. Rubio is going to be the republican nominee.

      • David Springer

        Write this down, Donny: Rubio will break 20% in Texas on Super Tuesday getting him a nearly even cut of Texas delegates. Trump might not even make 20%. He’s a dead duck if he doesn’t. Cruz is going to do so poorly everywhere but Texas on Super Tuesday he’ll be dropping out of the race. So will Kasich. The race will then be between Trump and Rubio. Kasich and Cruz will both endorse Rubio which gives him a bunch of winner take all states on March 15 particularly Florida and Ohio. It’s all downhill for Trump from there. It began when that fat rude phuck Chris Christie endorsed him. Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas. You didn’t really think that clown could go all the way did you? It’s amazing he made it this far. After the debate drubbing he received from Rubio last night you can see why he won’t. Trump is the Al Sharpton of the GOP in other words. Fun to listen to but not cut from presidential cloth.

      • You should stick to your cartoons and leave politics to the pros, springy. Trump will do well in Texas. Ruby-oh, not looking so good (see story below). Cruz and Kasich will very likely still be in it for a while.

        I’ll be in Texas working the A-A, Vietnamese, Hispanic and Pinoy folks. Speak all their languages well enough to get much support for The Donald. The big shocker will be how many non-white votes Trump get’s in the general election.

        Horse trainer from Santa Anita is visiting Tijuana (Lupita and Carmencita) and sees an old guy standing next to a beautiful horse with a FOR SALE sign hanging around its neck. Trainer says “How much for the horse?” Old guy says “Ten dollars, senor.” Trainer thinks, this old guy doesn’t know what he’s got. He says to the old guy “Why so cheap?” Old guy says “Horse, he no look good, senor.” Trainer says to himself “Looks damn good to me.” Tells old guy “Here’s your ten bucks.” Trainer comes back with trailer and takes the horse to the track. Immediately starts to put the horse through its paces to see what he’s got. Horse just bumps into stuff. It’s blind as a bat. Trainer is very angry, takes horse back to the old guy and berates him for selling a blind horse. Old guy says “But I tell you, senor. Horse, he no look good.”

    • David Springer

      For the record – I’m banned from WUWT just like Donny. I can’t stand Monckton and my participation on blogs other than Curry’s is virtually nil and on those rare occasions it’s invariably a warmist blog not a sceptic blog.

      Thanks for asking. Sorry you’re wrong on all counts but you must be used to that by now.

  50. Thanks for your kind words Lawrence, However you forgot to mention one of my many sock puppets’ remarkably accurate prior prediction of the most recent record low in global sea ice area:

    https://twitter.com/jim_hunt/status/702433479951323137

    • David Springer

      See if you can figure this one out. How much more efficient is the Arctic ocean at heat escaping to space in winter when it’s open water vs. covered in ice. Watts per square meter please. Thanks in advance, genius.

  51. David Springer

    The Arctic Ocean is to the tropics as a radiator is to an automobile engine. Arctic Sea Ice extent is to the global heat budget as a thermostat is to an automobile engine.

    Ice is a great insulator. Open water however loses heat like a ‘mofo in comparison through both evaporation and radiation. There isn’t actually enough insolation in the Arctic for ice’s higher albedo to make a difference. Water’s albedo is high at low angles on incidence typical of Arctic summers and of course there’s little to no sun at all in the winter.

    Write all that down of course.

  52. Re: Pethefin | February 23, 2016 at 10:50 am

    Yes. The last word on DMI 30% extent?

    http://GreatWhiteCon.info/2016/02/gross-deception-about-dmis-missing-graph/

    http://greatwhitecon.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DMI-15-2016-01-04.png

    In actual fact there’s no puzzle whatsoever. Is there?

  53. Jim Hunt
    Your Mate Kevin O’Neill is into the conspiracy theories.
    “Yes, all the other sea ice extent graphs are wrong. Only the DMI 30% is correct.”
    Well you said it Kevin.
    Note I did not say this. Anywhere, anytime, and certainly not in this blog stream.
    So you chose to make up, fabricate an idea.
    Then ascribe it to another person, in this case me.
    Then make up a conspiracy theory and ascribe it to me.
    Great style, appreciated.
    “Now, you can either believe in a vast conspiracy”- No I don’t.
    In your conspiracy thought stream you say.
    “This requires that all the satellite operators be in on it. All the other sea ice extent data compilers be in on it. All the people who collect in situ observations be in on it. The people who do ice area and ice volume be in on it.”
    In on what?
    Yes, all the other sea ice extent graphs are consistent.
    Europe’s National Meteorological Services and, by extension, the International Users and Science Community, share data from the 30 different satellites. 10 American including NOOA [5], 6 European,5 chines, 2 Russian, 2 Japanese etc. Everyone likes cooperating.
    Galileo 7 & 8 launched on 27 March from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on top of a Soyuz rocket.
    The CDOP-2 consortium is constituted of Meteo-France, as host institute, and of the following co-operating institutes : MET Norway (Norway), DMI ( Denmark), Ifremer ( France), KNMI ( Netherlands).
    The Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF) supplies the 15% product to DMI.
    DMI do not even touch it other than to put their name on it.
    All I said was that the 30% product which uses a different Algorithm, which was being actively updated, and had nothing wrong with it, unless you believe a major stuff up to split a new data graph on an old data graph was done, was withdrawn when it did not match. the other, ubiquitous 15% graph.
    This was a nucifragous summary of your pithy argument, Kevin

    • What are you on about angech? I’m not psychic you know, except when it comes to certain Arctic sea ice metrics.

      Kevin O’Neill isn’t “my mate”, though someone using that name did leave a very short comment on my blog earlier today concerning NALOPKT, with which I agreed.

      Where are the all the words you put in his mouth located, and what’s it got to do with me?

  54. Where are the all the words you put in his mouth located,
    At Rabett run 29/2/2016 Kevin O’Neill said…
    Angech – the DMI graph could not be correct and all the others *also* correct. This requires a conspiracy.
    and what’s it got to do with me?
    At Arctic sea ice blog, your home away from home see your multiple postings 23/2/2016 Kevin
    “BTW Neven, if Anthony isn’t a conspiracy nutter he sure has a strange way of showing it.”
    Also boasting of being a sock puppet Kevin said ” Posted at WUWT as oneillsinwisconsin February 22, 2016 at 2:51 pm – let’s see if it goes through”:
    underhanded?
    “I used Walt’s email reply to Jim, but didn’t link anything in the comment so that AW couldn’t use it as an excuse to snip.”

    • Thanks angech. I’m not a regular reader of the Professorial Bunny’s writings. I’ll pop over there now to see what’s going on. Do you appreciate sarcasm? In the Queen’s plain English:

      The DMI 30% graph was wrong. They inadvertenly displayed “an artifact” in a product that had been unsupported for ages. Period.

      BTW – AW evidently isn’t the only one who needs remarkably little excuse to [SNIP]

  55. DMI 30%
    DMI’s only home grown product.
    Replaced by 15% graph from The Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSISAF)
    DMI stuck to their guns and kept it running in the background [it’s ours].
    Claim they went so far as to update it in Summer [but have not provided the proof]
    Removed it under pressure when it accurately showed a rise in sea ice extent, either because it did or they mistakenly spliced a new data set on an old data set.
    If the former very sad, if the latter very sloppy.
    Lack of explanation and time of removal is very suspicious.
    Brrr, shiver, where is Kevin the conspiratist when you really need him

    • Do you ever bother to read the links I helpfully provide you with? Do you have even the vaguest idea what you’re talking about?

      DMI 30% didn’t “accurately show a rise in sea ice extent”. There was no “rise in sea ice extent”. Please stop making things up and/or repeating nonsense that other people have made up.

  56. Jim, Elsewhere in the Universe [at Eli’s] Commentators are commentating
    ” The DMI 30% graph was wrong. They inadvertently displayed an “artifact” in a product that had been unsupported for ages. Period!
    BBD said…Not to mention Gross deception about DMI’s “Missing Graph””
    In fact he linked to your blog.
    Oh dear.
    Not an artifact The graph had been running for 11 years and was constantly updated til Xmas 2015.
    In fact the DMI made the amazing claim that they had upgraded the graph in Summer 2015 disproving your claim that it had been unsupported for ages.
    BBD’S link to Jim Hunt shows an article that is too scared to even show what you call the “artifact”.
    The rise in sea ice extent 30% being th highest in 11 years of doing the graph.
    Two explanations.
    One the graph is real, based on their original algorithms and shows a disconcerting [for warmists] rise in30% concentration ice.
    This will be proved or disproved by looking at PIOMAS and MASIE as comparators.
    The other is that the graph is real and DMI spliced a different interpretation of the way sea ice extent was calculated from summer 2015 onto the preceding graph.
    This conveniently explains the real rise [still not an artifact in any sense of the word] but is too cute. It suggests the DMI graph compilers were dummies.

  57. I repeat
    Jim Hunt is too scared to even show the real DMI graph that was decommissioned.
    Too scared to argue about the real graph.
    But he can say things like this
    “Please stop making things up and/or repeating nonsense that other people have made up.”
    Piffle.
    Or, as Nero Wolfe would say, “Piffle”

  58. Here’s a couple of suggestions for you angech.

    1) You display the “Real DMI graph” that you allege I’m “too scared to”

    2) Pick any one of the dozens of graphs proudly on display at:

    http://GreatWhiteCon.info/resources/arctic-sea-ice-graphs/

    Then let’s discuss what they reveal, shall we?

  59. Has the cat got your tongue angech? Here’s the latest Arctic sea ice extent data, hot off the presses from the NSIDC:

    http://GreatWhiteCon.info/2016/02/the-2016-arctic-winter-sea-ice-puzzle/#comment-213732

    http://greatwhitecon.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/NSIDC-201602-1024×791.jpg

    Please reveal to me the “rise in sea ice extent” you refer to.

    • Just like the stadium wave predicted…

      • So finally we’re all agreed that Judith’s opening line was accurate?

        Arctic sea ice extent has been anomalously low this winter.

        And Bartemis, angech, Watts et al. are the ones talking “piffle”!

  60. Jim Hunt claim

    After every Arctic area and extent metric under the sun sitting at “lowest *ever” levels for weeks a recent increase in coverage on the Pacific side of the Arctic has changed that:
    But,
    DMI 30% showed a rise.
    The MASIE graph shows an extent matching the ten-year average. At 15.02 M km2, 2016 exceeds 2015 annual maximum of 14.91 recorded on day 62, and this year’s peak ice may well go higher
    Which makes your claim of lowest ever on every Arctic area and extent completely wrong.
    PIOMAS perhaps Jim?
    Not extent and area but volume above recent levels and going higher.
    Shame to waste a poor argument by obviously wrong and hyperbolic claptrap.
    That is your game though.
    Come back when every metric is lowest ever and we can have a laugh together.

  61. PIOMAS will be up, Jim.
    Bold statement which may leave egg on my face.
    How do I know?
    Well when it goes down Neven posts the fact within 4 days of the start of the month.
    When it goes up it does not show until the 10th or 11th day.
    Goodness me. 9/3/2016 and Neven does not have it up?
    Must be getting higher.
    Or perhaps I have a contact?
    Checkout 2nd down Judith’s blogroll and go back through the last 12 PIOMAS blogs and check the dates and results.

  62. Even better, you have finally put the DMI graph up on your site 3/8/2016.
    Thank you.
    Hoping the PIOMAS anomaly goes up, Jim.
    That is not seasonally dependent.
    JCH, one can be wrong once in a while.
    Or one can cherry pick graphs to discuss as you constantly do and conveniently go quiet when results change from your narrative.
    Which you have been doing most of your blogging life here.
    Care to call the Arctic maximum today to go with your narrative or will you admit it can still go up?
    Former fits with your bias, latter goes with common sense.
    I guess you will choose common sense?
    But now prepared to be surprised.

    • What result has gone against me? Lol. I win no matter what. The system is gaining energy. Every day. Your position is hopeless. Nothing can go your way. Let’s a have the next warmest La Nina in the instrument record. Bring it. Lol. bring it.

      • “The system is gaining energy”
        Nonsense, we can’t even measure it accurately enough to get an answer without making up a large percentage of our “measurements”.

      • Nonsense right back. They measure many ways… all lines of evidence indicate the system is gaining energy: ice melt, thermometers, satellites, sea level… altimeters and tide gauges and buoys, etc. … everything.

        The tinfoil hats say otherwise. Who cares.

      • They measure many ways… all lines of evidence indicate the system is gaining energy: ice melt, thermometers, satellites, sea level… altimeters and tide gauges and buoys, etc. … everything.

        What about all the new Antarctic Ice, most of the planet doesn’t have a thermometer (But one ones we have show temps fall at night proportional to the prior days warming), satellites don’t show much in the way of warming, and we have nothing to compare them to prior to the modern cold period (60’s-70’s) when they were first launched, Sea level has so many caveats, it’s all over the place depending on the kind of cherries you like to pick.

        Okay, I will take my comment back some, there’s been a slight warming since the end of the little ice age, the rest is hidden in measurement uncertainty.

    • Angech – Perhaps the (in)famous “Arctic Death Spiral” will help you visualise things better?

      https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdIqAxCWEAMJkj6.jpg

  63. DMIs explanation doesn’t make sense to me.
    I would think that the 30% area would have less contact with the coast ,thus would be less affected by a revised mask.
    Whereas if a new coastal mask has so much affect from 2015 onward ,how can the 15% data be compared to any previous years prior to 2016?Shouldnt all the previous years be recalculated using the new mask?
    Isnt the 2016 15% data the artifact of adjustment?

    • exactly.
      Tell Jim.
      Great work, Jim, an up to date death spiral.
      And Neven has updated his as well in the long term graphs after it was stuck on 2012 for 4 years.
      4 years? Oh that’s when PIOMAS started going up again.
      Now a new little dip and you do up the graph.

  64. mojo² – What happens to sea ice in winter?

    Angech – Ditto.

    The spiral was for your benefit. If you follow the orange line round can you see that February 2016 is noticeably nearer the centre of the spiral than Feb 2015? I can’t speak for Neven, but my PIOMAS monthly graph gets updated every month, not every leap year. Is this one any clearer for you?

    http://GreatWhiteCon.info/resources/arctic-sea-ice-graphs/#PIOMAS

  65. Uhm, Jim?
    The graphs from about graph 6 down are only up to 2014.
    Shhh.
    Thought you should be informed.
    It is your site after all and you did get a heads up from WUWT or so the link you put up says.

  66. Mind you PIOMAS increase was definitely small.
    I find when I call things Stockmarket, climate etc things go in the other direction.
    Obviously does not apply to you.
    Like that joke about how they got all the oil wells if they are on the wrong side.
    So , no predictions, enough egg on face. I will let you do the heavy work instead and remind you of it when/if it goes wrong for you too.
    And JCH