Sea Ice Stretch Run #3 « Climate Audit

As for ice thickness, this could yet represent the best indicator of recovery. Of the buoys installed in 2008, thickness changes up to 10th Sep are as follows:
2008B 2m April, 2m now (first year ice - i.e. baby ice, so where's the expected meltdown?)
2008C 2.7m April, 2.7m now (multiyear)
2008D 2.95m April, no sign of line on graph since, perhaps because graph doesn't go below 3m? (multiyear)
2008E 1.9m April, 1.3m now, but then it has drifted about 5 degrees south towards the Atlantic (first year)
2008F 3.5m August (i.e. newer buoy), 3.1m now, but then it has already drifted a couple of degrees south into the Beaufort Sea (multiyear ice)

As for the other buoys, two of the 2007 buoys have drifted right out into the Beaufort Sea, so are of limited relevance to thickness changes over the main ice areas. The remaining 2007 buoy has stayed within the main ice area and shows an increase in thickness from 2.8m a year ago to 3.3m today (2007J). The only 2006 buoy (2006C) shows thickness identical to a year ago (1.2m) but only half the summer melt.

Always bear in mind we were told by NASA that average ice thickness at the end of last summer was 1.3m.

The missing link is how thick the ice is on the Siberian side. Of course it's thicker than a year ago, because the 2007 summer melt exposed large new areas of open water, and over half of these areas are now ice-covered again. (i.e. some ice is definitely thicker than no ice!) This is where the evidence from the latest Russian polar research expedition (#442) is so interesting because it suggests the ice on the Siberian side may be much thicker than many have been assuming. This could well be setting the Arctic up for a bigger recovery in 2008/9 than even some of the more optimistic observers have been suggesting.