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:

Since 2002, the multi-agency USA-Japan joint project entitled "North Pole Environmental Observatory" (NPEO) has deployed Web Cameras along with instruments that monitor air, ice and ocean conditions. The Web Cams provide an otherwise unobtainable view of sea ice conditions throughout the Arctic summer.

The summers observed by the North Pole Web Cams were very different. (see table below). The onset of melting is typically in early June [I think that should be 'late June', N.], but occurred in late July in 2002, and late June in 2003 and 2004. The Web Cam images show very limited melt pond coverage in 2002, but widespread melt pond coverage in 2003 and 2004. In 2003, the melt ponds were widespread by July 4, but diminished in late July, and then reformed in mid-August. Freezeup began in late August in 2002, Sept 7 in 2003, and in mid-August in 2004. Summer sea ice transition information was not available for 2005 or 2007.

In 2008, the snow became waterlogged June 25, and extensive meltponds formed quickly, only five days later (June 30). Meltponds are still observed August 25 in standard web cam images. After that time, the only clear images are from another webcam with a fisheye lens observing sky conditions, but also revealing snow conditions. Meltponds are visible on the fisheye image from September 14. Although further images are at least partially obscured by water drops or snow on the lens, there appears to be snow cover in an image from Sepember 22. In summary, in 2008, the onset of melt progressed more quickly than in previous years, and melt ponds persisted longer and later than usual.

In 2009, the snow became soft and meltponds started to form July 8, but never became very widespread, with the maximum meltpond extent observed around July 14-16. Meltponds were closing over by Aug 11, but small slits of open water were still visible Sept 8. After that date, only one image was received from the web cam, on Sept 25, at which time the melt ponds were all snowcovered. In summary, in 2009, onset of melt was later than most years (later only in 2002). Meltpond coverage was less widespread than any year observed by the web cams other than 2002, but the snow remained soft later than most years (at least through Sept 8).

In 2010, the snow became soft Jun 25, similar to many other years, but widespread meltponds formed by Jun 27, earlier than in any of the other years observed by the webcams. Freezeup began Aug 12 and meltponds were covered by Aug 23.

Comments

[Artful Dodger]

Neven, for completeness could you reproduce the Table referred to above?

Also, one of the unstated presumptions of these images is that they are taken at the North Pole. That is not quite accurate.

In Spring, the cameras are placed on a ice floe near the Pole, and then drift with the pack ice. By September, they can move South by hundreds of Kilometers, with a varying trajectory depending upon the circumstances of the Trans-Polar Drift and Winds.

Without incurring a LOT of extra work, it might be appropriate to link to the historical Drift maps for the Webcams. This will provide some context for the quoted text above.

Thanks once more Neven for a great post!

[Neven]

Sorry, Lodger. Forgot the link to the page with the table. It's up now.

And here's a link to a University of Washington APL/PSC web page showing this year's drift map.

[Artful Dodger]

No problem, Neven. Thanks! I also poked around for historic Drift Maps, but did not find an archive.

Does anybody know if these are available online anywhere?

Cheers!

[Bfraser]

OT, but I just noticed the huge hot-spot north of Hawaii (trailing all the way to Asia):

http://ghrsst-pp.metoffice.com/pages/latest_analysis/sst_monitor/daily/ens/index.html

[Neven]

Great balls of fire!

But some of the water in and near the Arctic is pretty hot as well. Pretty in pink:

[Gas Glo]

Yes it is pretty having lots of red and pink but what temperatures are these compared to? What is the baseline period?

Perhaps as well to also check out real temperatures rather than anomalies

[Neven]

Good questions, Gas Glo. And of course you're right. But 3-5 degrees warmer than the baseline period (whatever it may be) is a lot of warm water to melt ice. And besides, that pink colour...

But anyway, we should take this to the latest SIE update comment section. My mistake.

[michael sweet]

For the last day web cam two has shown large leads of open water. The temperature has gone down and the pools have frozen over. Camera one is also colder and the pools have shrunken.