I would define "A blue ocean Arctic" as being able to sail directly from the Bering Strait to the pole then on past Longyearbyen to the Norwegian coast without having to smash through or detour around any ice.
On another note they have stopped providing the Modis pictures of the arctic but you can see similar from this link here.
https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?p ... lor(hidden),MODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor,MODIS_Aqua_Sea_Ice,Reference_Labels(hidden),Reference_Features(hidden),Coastlines&t=2018-09-21-T00%3A00%3A00Z&z=3&v=-5201920,-3608575.999999999,5201920,3608576.000000001&ab=off&as=2018-08-16T00%3A00%3A00Z&ae=2018-08-23T00%3A00%3A00Z&av=3&al=false