The Variability of Arctic Sea Ice Extent from Spring to Summer and Its Linkage to the Decline of SIE in September

Figure 11

The distributions of surface sea temperature (SST) in spring (MAM) and its associations with the 10 highest and 10 lowest JJ SIE over the north of 10°N during 1979–2012: (a) a 30 yr average SST in MAM for 1981–2010, (b) departure of average SST for the 10 highest JJ SIE cases relative to the 30 yr average SST in (a), (c) as in (b) but for the 10 lowest JJ SIE cases, and (d) Student’s -test scores of SST for 10 highest and 10 lowest JJ SIE cases.

(a) 30 yr mean SST in spring

(b) Dep. under 10 high JJ SIE

(c) Dep. under 10 low JJ SIE

(d) -test for SST in spring