Because while the winter maximum used to increase (5y average) in the last 40 years, the summer maximum decreased (5y average) over the same period.
> How is it misleading when they're talking about "exposing more open ocean to incoming solar radiation and heating" specifically?
So, if you don't know, during winter there is almost no sun in antartica (and even in the areas you can see it 3 hours a day like in the Kerguelen, it isnt absorbed that much to to a low angle of incidence). So we clearly don't care about random averages of the sea ice over a year, but its state when the sun hit the water, in summer (because the angle of incidence is higher, and also, the sun almost never sets there).
That's why your data is correct, but misleading. What's important isn't the ice sheet surface this winter, during june-july-august-september (sorry to over-explain, but i get that this is a complex issue and this bear repeating) but how much ice was present last summer (this winter if you're in the north hemisphere). And this was the lowest we ever had.
Do you want more clarifications on specific points? I'm not an expert, and this is a complex subject
> Because while the winter maximum used to increase (5y average) in the last 40 years, the summer maximum decreased (5y average) over the same period.
March extent has neither decreased, nor increased. It hasn't been decreasing at all. The largest extent in march has occurred in the years 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
> How is it misleading when they're talking about "exposing more open ocean to incoming solar radiation and heating" specifically?
So, if you don't know, during winter there is almost no sun in antartica (and even in the areas you can see it 3 hours a day like in the Kerguelen, it isnt absorbed that much to to a low angle of incidence). So we clearly don't care about random averages of the sea ice over a year, but its state when the sun hit the water, in summer (because the angle of incidence is higher, and also, the sun almost never sets there).
That's why your data is correct, but misleading. What's important isn't the ice sheet surface this winter, during june-july-august-september (sorry to over-explain, but i get that this is a complex issue and this bear repeating) but how much ice was present last summer (this winter if you're in the north hemisphere). And this was the lowest we ever had.
Do you want more clarifications on specific points? I'm not an expert, and this is a complex subject