Animation 2: Concentration

I've been playing around some more with my GIF animator and made some animated GIFs of sea ice concentration maps. Because they're not so big in size and show some discrepancies I thought it might be interesting to combine them in one blog post, just to see how it looks. Perhaps I could use them for updates every two weeks.

These images all show the ice concentration between June 5th and 15th. You can click on them for (slightly) bigger resolution.

Allow me to start off with the Uni Bremen sea ice concentration map:

 

I notice there's quite a bit of day-to-day variation. I don't know what's the reason for that. If you look at satellite images of the Beaufort Sea for instance you see there's a lot of floes packed very close together. I can imagine currents and/or winds (and the Beaufort Gyre) changing things radically within 24 hours, but that could also just be my imagination. Perhaps it has something to do with clouds or small lakes on the ice.

I've made a graph from the OSI SAF (I believe it's Norwegian?) sea ice concentration map as well:

   

Here the day-to-day variation looks more 'natural'.

I've decided to have a look as well at some maps that are popular at WUWT. I've been wondering for a while now why on the Cryosphere Today map comparisons seem to have 2010 showing a very high ice concentration in the Arctic Basin compared to other years. Is this real or is it some artefact due to different colour scales and lower resolution?

Hardly any change in ice concentration in the Arctic Basin, and the polynyi in the Beaufort and Kara Sea also look smaller than on other maps. For comparison you can have a look at Cryosphere Today's own 30-day animation of the map on the front page.

I'll end with the sea ice concentration map from the Navy's Polar Ice Prediction System (PIPS):

 

Here we see some yellow and green forming in the middle of the Arctic Basin. That doesn't look right to me, so I'll keep my eye on it for a few days.

Comments

[Patrick Lockerby]

The O&SI SAF main page links to lots of lovely pix for you to animate.
http://www.osi-saf.org/
Their sea ice edge images show a lot of water along shore lines
http://saf.met.no/p/ice/nh/edge/edge.shtml
and yes, it is a Swedish site.

Blatant plug alert!
Many people are using MODIS Rapidfire images in their Arctic-watcher blogs, so I'm writing a howto to show how to get the best out of the images.
http://www.scientificblogging.com/chatter_box/modis_rapidfire_citizen_scientists_1

btw, it seems to me that when an area of ice is socked in with low cloud, it shows a lot of melting when the cloud disperses. Do you and your readers agree?

[Neven]

Patrick, I've tried posting a comment on your blog for three times, but it doesn't work for one reason or other ('access denied'), so I'm posting it here:

"That is very helpful, Patrick. I have started observing the MODIS images this year for the first time, so a good tutorial saves a lot of time.

I believe I've been thanking you on a daily basis for the past 3 weeks or so."

captcha: plain sailing. :-P"

[Patrick Lockerby]

Always glad to help. :-)

Neven, if you click on my name at the chatter box, you can email me. I'll help you debug whatever snafuware is blocking you.

[David Gould]

Neven,

I have noticed the issue with cryosphere today comparisons. If you look at the image on the main page for June 14, and then look at the image in the comparison system for June 14, they are very, very different. I think that the one on the main page is the correct one.

[Lord Soth]

Cryosphere Today sea ice abnomaly is increasinging again. Since they measure sea ice area instead of extent, they are influence by melt ponds on top the ice being counted as open water.

If you take a look at the most recent MODIS, you will see that the Beaufort sea beginning to change from white to turquoise, as melt ponds develop. THis is also happening in the Laptev sea and in the southern route of the north west passage, and even in McClure-Perry Passage.

Now melt ponds, so early in the season is not a good thing. I also noticed a large crack thru the clouds in the ice bridge blocking the main northwest passage (Parry Channel). So over the next few days we should lose half of that ice bridge. The western half is devoid of ice, and if you observve at the 250m resolution; you can see how the mosaic of ice refroze last fall, since the snow cover on that ice is now gone.

Well it if finally above freezing at the North Pole (well within 40 miles to be exact) as shown by the buoy at the NPEO web site.

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/PAWS_atmos_recent.html

We are fast approaching crunch time. Soon we will see if the ice extent goes in a nose dive like 2007, or we maintain or steady decline of only 60,000 km a day, with 2007 overtaking the lead by early July.

Looking at MODIS, their is great pontential for an increased rate of lost, but unfortunatly I was not tuned to the weather in 2007. Can anybody comment of the current June weather compared to 2007?

[Lord Soth]

That should be "Can anybody comment of the current June weather compared to 2007". It would be nice to have a 10 minute comment edit function on this blog.

[Neven]

LS, I've edited your post and changed 2010 into 2007. This is the most basic (and free) version of TypePad, so not enough functionality to install an comment edit function for the time being, I'm afraid.

[dorlomin]

Hudson bay looks on course to be ice clear a month early.

[Neven]

Lord Soth, do you think the strange looking variation (the appearance and disappearance of yellow and green colours in the Beaufort Sea) in the concentration map of Uni Bremen is caused by melt ponds too?

[Kevin McKinney]

"Hudson bay looks on course to be ice clear a month early."

Yes, I've also been struck by how quickly the Bay seems to be clearing this year. Of course, I seem to be observing more closely every year, too, but this does look different from what I recall from the past.

[Lord Soth]

Yes Hudson bay is clearing 4 weeks early. Last year it was really late, as a quasi-stationary low was stuck over Hudson Bay most of the summer. This year, between the warm winter, and a more favorable weather pattern, the ice in the bay is going quickly.

The Uni Bremen maps have a lot of variance in ice within the pack. I could be wind moving the consentration in the pack around, but it looks like its changing to quickly and is too random. It may be a sensor calibration issue.

[dorlomin]

Well Cryosphere Today shows another drop in anomaly from -1.15 to -1.225 million km^2.

[Neven]

dorlomin, if I may ask, how do you calculate this anomaly?And what is it an anomaly of?

[dorlomin]

The Cryosphere Today Sea Ice Area
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.recent.arctic.png

[Neven]

Thanks!