An incomplete ground of a painting of the NH sea ice last northern summer. The sea ice is like a canary in the coal mine. Its warming and retreat has already had big effects on atmospheric circulation, as the ice edge directs the jetstream, which has been playing with spiralling figure 8 fugues rotating around Canada and Siberia,
There was once ice near permanently along the north coast of Svalbard( an archipelago east of far north Greenland) at around 81N. In those days the most northerly extension of the gulf stream petered out along Svalbard's west coast, making Spitsbergen by far the most northerly ice free port, the waystation for WW2 arctic convoys to the Soviet Union
Now its is pushing into the waters north of Svalbard, last winter there was no ice along the coast or for at least 100k north, any sea ice driven south of about 82.4N soon melted. The only ice arriving or freezing there was south and east in the Barents sea.
Over summer the edge didn't move much, retreating only a little(its very close to the pole) while along the Russian and Alaskan coasts it melted for 1000km. The warm saline gulf stream water has been accumulating and pushing east.
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