The Cryosphere, 7, 1753–1768, 2013 Open Access www.the-cryosphere.net/7/1753/2013/ doi:10.5194/tc-7-1753-2013 The Cryosphere © Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Recent extreme light sea ice years in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: 2011 and 2012 eclipse 1998 and 2007 S. E. L. Howell1, T. Wohlleben2, A. Komarov3,4, L. Pizzolato5, and C. Derksen1 1Climate Research Division, Environment Canada, Toronto, Canada 2Canadian Ice Service, Environment Canada, Ottawa, Canada 3Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada 4Centre for Earth Observation Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada 5Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada Correspondence to: S. E. L. Howell (
[email protected]) Received: 20 February 2013 – Published in The Cryosphere Discuss.: 28 March 2013 Revised: 10 October 2013 – Accepted: 19 October 2013 – Published: 15 November 2013 Abstract. Remarkably low mean September sea ice area helped counteract the processes that facilitate extreme heavy in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) was observed ice years. The recent extreme light years within the CAA are in 2011 (146 × 103 km2), a record-breaking level that was associated with a longer navigation season within the North- nearly exceeded in 2012 (150 × 103 km2). These values west Passage. were lower than previous September records set in 1998 (200 × 103 km2) and 2007 (220 × 103 km2), and are ∼ 60 % lower than the 1981–2010 mean September climatology. In this study, the processes contributing to the extreme light 1 Introduction years of 2011 and 2012 were investigated, compared to pre- vious extreme minima of 1998 and 2007, and contrasted Prior to the Arctic melt season of 2012, perhaps the most against historic summer seasons with above average Septem- striking Arctic sea ice event in the passive microwave satel- ber ice area.