A study just released in Nature Geoscience comes to the following conclusion, as state in the article’s abstract:
Here we present an assessment of the changes in Northern Hemisphere sea ice thickness and volume using five years of CryoSat-2 measurements. Between autumn 2010 and 2012, there was a 14% reduction in Arctic sea ice volume, in keeping with the long-term decline in extent. However, we observe 33% and 25% more ice in autumn 2013 and 2014, respectively, relative to the 2010–2012 seasonal mean, which offset earlier losses. This increase was caused by the retention of thick sea ice northwest of Greenland during 2013 which, in turn, was associated with a 5% drop in the number of days on which melting occurred—conditions more typical of the late 1990s. In contrast, springtime Arctic sea ice volume has remained stable. The sharp increase in sea ice volume after just one cool summer suggests that Arctic sea ice may be more resilient than has been previously considered.
The title of the article is “Increase Arctic sea ice volume after anomalously low melting in 2013.” The authors are Rachel L. Tilling, Andy Ridout, Andrew Shepherd & Duncan J. Wingham from The Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, Department of Earth Sciences, University College London.