Fig. 3: Very rapid sea ice loss events contribute to an acceleration of Arctic sea ice reduction.

a The 30-yr climatological range of ΔSIE (gray) compared with the bottom 5th percentile mean-removed VRILEs (ΔSIEmean removed; red) and range of filtered VRILEs (ΔSIEbwfilt; blue). Distribution of the (b) number of VRILEs for decadal periods with 1991 through 2001 (black), 2002 through 2012 (blue), and 2013 through 2023 (red) by month and (c) total number of filtered VRILEs (blue) plus mean-removed VRILEs (red) in June-August (JJA) by year. d 1 September SIE (black) and 1 September SIE minus the accumulated sea ice reductions from ΔSIEtotal (gray). The fractional reduction in SIE from ΔSIEtotal (red) is shown for comparison using Equation (1) and expressed as a percentage. The number of VRILEs for decadal periods 1991 through 2001 (black), 2002 through 2012 (blue), and 2013 through 2023 (red) by ΔSIE for (e) JJA and (f) all months except JJA.