Figure 1

Anomalies in five spatially averaged variables for the Arctic Ocean, and the correlation coefficients between integrated surface LWD and inverted onset SIC (-SIC anomaly). Anomalies in surface LWD, SKT, CFC, and WV are averaged from December to May, and the inverted initial SIC from May 16 to June 5, (a) before and (b) after de-trending. All time series were normalized based on their corresponding standard deviations. Panels (c) and (d) show the correlation coefficients between integrated surface LWD from December to a given month and the SIC at onset of melting from May 16 to June 5 during the periods (c) 1985–2014 and (d) 2001–2014. This figure has been created with IDL8.3 (Exelis Visual Information Solutions, Boulder, Colorado).