Just like last year, Arctic.io has produced an animation that shows how the melting season developed this year:
Quote:
Above animation starts with a full image of the Arctic mosaic taken first week of May and then updates all cloud free parts day by day and frame by frame. Although it looks quite real, every single frame is actually a patchwork of multiple days.
Continue reading and comment on Arctic.io.
What strikes me is that there is not that much motion of the ice. For all the discussion of gyres, pressure gradients and currents, most of the ice melted in place this year.
Posted by: ThE SnYpEr AzZ | September 04, 2011 at 22:30
To me, it seems like a kayak with an outboard moter might make it around Greenland.
http://www.arctic.io/observations/
Posted by: fred | September 05, 2011 at 17:00
Another (typically) excellent piece of work from ArcticIO.
ThE SnYpEr AzZ,
I get that impression too. It's a real shame they don't do QuickScat (QS) images any more, a timeseries of those really used to show the ice-pack move. I suspect that the Beaufort Gyre, Transpolar-Drift and Fram Strait flux have been less active. Those three account for most of the movement I remember seeing on QS.
I'll stop before I start reminiscing about ice-watching before 2007...
Ahh, those were the days. ;)
Posted by: Chris Reynolds | September 05, 2011 at 20:11