Arctic Sea Ice

Through the eyes of Healy

This is a translation of a blog post on the excellent Spanish blog on Arctic sea ice called Diablobanquisa:

Towards the North Pole aboard the Healy

We go aboard the icebreaker USCGC Healy again...

...to travel from the Alaskan coast almost all the way to the North Pole.

Its position and route can be seen on this map, which is updated here [I have overlaid the image with a sea ice concentration map to give an idea, N.]:

On this web page we find all the images that are shot on an hourly basis by a webcam aboard the icebreaker Healy. It's a great opportunity to travel, almost live, across the Arctic Ocean to the North Pole, and have a look at the actual state of the Arctic sea ice pack, that is only a few days away from this summer's minimum extent.

On August 21st the USCGC Healy leaves the Alaskan coast behind and sails off into a Beaufort Sea (at 71ºN) that is entirely free of ice:

Death of a webcam

These are not good days to be a webcam. That is, if you're deployed on a buoy in the Arctic.

Of course, NOAA webcam 1 has been sagging for a while now:

And NOAA webcam 2 has just decided to topple over backwards:

But that's nothing compared to webcam #2 from the Obuoy project that is currently gazing at the sky with lifeless eyes:

2011 webcam puddles

There has been some speculation about this since yesterday, but Paolo has confirmed that the first puddles of melted snow can be seen on images of NOAA's Arctic StarDot NetCam #1 that is located at the North Pole:

NOAA webcam 2 is also showing some dark patches:

This is a few days earlier than last year, and according to this NOAA webpage the earliest date since they began deploying the webcams on a yearly basis:

USCGC Healy is nearing 80N

The USCGC Healy has been going to and fro through the Beaufort Sea to map out the seabed, but as it has sailed northward again and entered water with high sea ice concentration, I figured it was time for a follow-up to the last blog post concerning Healy.

Here's a picture from this morning from the ship's ALOFTCON webcam:

 

This is their position superimposed on the sea ice concentration map from the University of Bremen:

USCGC Healy has entered

As Lodger/Artful Dodger has just informed us, USCGC Healy, the US Coast Guard's newest and most technologically advanced polar icebreaker that is designed to conduct a wide range of research activities has entered the ice pack in the Beaufort Sea. Here are the first pictures:

 

A webcam with a view

I do not intend to put up pictures of the remaining North Pole webcam every night, but this latest image struck me as particularly beautiful:

 

Click on the link or the image for a larger version. 

In the comment section siili posted another nice picture from the USCGC Healy:

Run, rabbit, run

The sun looks to be getting lower:

 

Run, rabbit, run

Dig that hole

Forget the sun

;-)

Maybe now the great Eli will finally honour me with a visit...

Webcam puddles

As Lord Soth has pointed out in the latest SIE update one of the NOAA webcams at the North Pole is showing what looks like a melt pond.

Click the image for a larger version or click here for a live version.

The other webcam is not showing any puddles as of yet. Update June 26th: it does now...

Here's a map of the current position of the webcams. POPS-13 (green) is for the webcam showing the puddles, the PAWS buoy (red) corresponds to webcam nr 2:

 

Someone sent me a great link to compare these webcam pictures to images from previous years.