Webcam art

Every now and again the North Pole webcams produce beautiful images (like last year). This one is a bit artsy:

When will the first puddles show up, I wonder?

Comments

[Artful Dodger]

Ha, looks like ol' St. Nick sneezed on the lens! Well with luck, Sinterklaas will still have a dry home this December.

[Peter Ellis]

Snow at webcam 2 looking very slushy today.
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/WEBCAM2/ARCHIVE/npeo_cam2_20120620003752.jpg

[Seke Rob]

Suppose per this http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/DriftTrackMap.html that the cam is nearing the 86th. Would be a thing if they raced out the Fram strait this year.

[Downil1]

Cam #2 looking wet today:

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/WEBCAM2/ARCHIVE/npeo_cam2_20120626003800.jpg

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=687386516]

Are these animal tracks on cam #1 today?

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/WEBCAM1/ARCHIVE/npeo_cam1_20120703084445.jpg

[Espen Olsen]

It certainly looks like it, maybe a bird of some kind! It is also pretty wet up there.

[Seke Rob]

Left on the horizon line seeming piling. Buoys map indicating continued racing toward Fram. http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/DriftTrackMap.html

[Christoffer Ladstein]

Yeti is back! Take a look, his footprints are massive:-)
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/18.jpg

Also notice the weatherdifference from the Pole cams to the buoys 4 & 6 drifting further south closer to N- Greenland, the latter experiencing much colder weather, almost no pools at all. But they're nevertheless destined to end up in the Fram strait, but when do we predict? 2-3 weeks?

[Christoffer Ladstein]

A closer inspection have made me conclude that between monday 2. July 20:55 ( http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/WEBCAM1/ARCHIVE/npeo_cam1_20120702205519.jpg ), and tueday 3. July 08:45 (http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/WEBCAM1/ARCHIVE/npeo_cam1_20120703084445.jpg ), "the day of the footprints" in front of polecam 1, there also occurred a large iceshove, easily shown in the background, left side, of the pic. A coincidence? Or do we have an intruder with submarine, camouflaged as ice, stalking around at the top of the world....
Just some irrelevant "theories", on a lousy weather saturday outside Oslo:-).

[Espen Olsen]

But these foot prints here may be a polar bear, or maybe a forgotten scientist:
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/18.jpg

[Seke Rob]

Well, if not a white furry hunter, schlepping paws, it could be the scientist tracks put there in April, then wind swept with fluffy snow, which then could melt first. We need some cores, or comparison to early April post installation pictures ;>)

[Espen Olsen]

I dont believe your theories about those prints being set there in April.
There is only an hour between these 2 images:

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/14.jpg

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/15.jpg

[Seke Rob]

The skill of elimination to arrive at the most probable cause. Was there more firmer snow around the webcam [think so as a former work area] or did the snowman go lighter footed nearer by? The cam did not budge a millimeter blimping the 3 shots, 14+15+18, not an all too inquisitive specimen came by. Good, so a movie of stitched images will appear as steady cam, [also in latitude... still at around 85.5 North].

[Espen Olsen]

Seke Rob

Sorry to disturb you!

[Seke Rob]

Just having fun with fun ... to offset ;>)

[michael sweet]

Arctic web cam 2 has giant foot prints in the picture today! http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/18.jpg.

A polar bear must have come by. Lucky it did not damage the camera.

[Christoffer Ladstein]

The Polar Bears seeking refuge from the Heatwawe striken Churchill, now seem to have reached the "Pole", web cam 2 show a lot of new foot prints!
They are very polite and civilized bears not to mess around with either webcam(s) or the poles stuck in the ground...eh....Ice!

[Seke Rob]

Micheal Sweet's /18.jpg image is broken [for me]. Here another one.

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/WEBCAM2/ARCHIVE/npeo_cam2_20120712002933.jpg

And here a buoy atmospheric record for the webcam location, now on 85 North... still en-route to Fram.

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/819920_atmos_recent.html

Very soggy.

[Espen Olsen]

There must people up there, those prints are made by humans!

[Seke Rob]

To offer another theory [not trying through MODIS imagery to interpret the tracks], a strayed Yeti hunting polars for some new footware. Pity these site setups don't have motion sensors... maybe next year.

[Werther]

These are the footprints from deploiment. It's like the tuff they discovered in Tanzania, which preserved the footprints of early humans. Snow was compacted, compaction reappearing because it's more resilient to melt/evaporation.

[Seke Rob]

hmmm, is that not what I wrote a number of posts up, except now there are more tracks ;?

[Espen Olsen]

But those prints appears and then disappears so I don't believe the theory they were made during deployment, there must be someone up there, now and then!

[Werther]

You're right, SekeRob.
But the footprint tuff arguement looked rather convincing to me. BTW the parallel just gets to me... these early forefathers survived natural climate change. We may very well not survive our own AGW...

[Seke Rob]

Leaving the polar bear paw shaped footware donned bipedal for a moment, did the Russians put out their manned station this year, or is it still the same that was manned Oct.2011?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drifting_ice_station

http://barentsobserver.com/en/arctic/russian-arctic-research-station-operational

[michael sweet]

Google "Polar bear foot prints". Polar bears always place their back foot just behind their front foot. The images in the camera are not bipedal, they are quadruped with the front foot just ahead of the back foot. As Espen pointed out up thread, the prints appear instantly in a photo. If they were "fossil" prints all the prints would not appear at the same time.

[Yazzur]

The same Polar bear seems to have visited Obuoy #4, leaving tracks and may be leaning against the camera, giving a bit of tilt.

[Hans Kiesewetter]

Did our Polar Bear destroy webcam2? (no update of images last 48 hrs...)

[Seke Rob]

The time stamping of the archive files is a bit odd. Maybe the system keeps only a limited set and is downloading the same ones?

[IMG] npeo_cam2_20120710123419.jpg 11-Jul-2012 06:49 25K
[IMG] npeo_cam2_20120711002926.jpg 14-Jul-2012 06:49 60K
[IMG] npeo_cam2_20120711003426.jpg 14-Jul-2012 06:49 42K
[IMG] npeo_cam2_20120711003926.jpg 11-Jul-2012 06:49 30K
[IMG] npeo_cam2_20120711122931.jpg 14-Jul-2012 06:49 46K
[IMG] npeo_cam2_20120711123431.jpg 14-Jul-2012 06:49 46K
[IMG] npeo_cam2_20120711123931.jpg 11-Jul-2012 06:49 22K
[IMG] npeo_cam2_20120712002933.jpg 14-Jul-2012 06:49 57K
[IMG] npeo_cam2_20120712003433.jpg 14-Jul-2012 06:49 51K

There might be more territorial oriented PB's. They like marking off,
http://laurentmikhail.hubpages.com/hub/Polar-Bear-Facts then who knows, one lifted a leg too close. Next yesr, bear repellent... we learn as we go ;D

[AmbiValent]

I wonder what such a polar bear thinks... maybe "Hey, that's technology... sooner or later a human with food will come here, so I'll stay around"

[Seke Rob]

The webcam 2 images of the 12th, now have a 15th timestmap. Meantime artsy webcam 1 shows clear slouching on the part of the reference poles: http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/NPEO2012/WEBCAM1/ARCHIVE/npeo_cam1_20120715143134.jpg

Just wondered what the relative position and alignment is of the 2 webcams. Doing extreme zoom, it's some other [webcam] site is visible in the far [but could be an image artifact too]. This page http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/index.html suggests close proximity too of 2 systems at now 84.857 North

[Hans Kiesewetter]

Webcam 2 is alive again. Wet images. Based on the black/white markers on the reference poles a lot of melt took place last day's. Does anybody know the blak/white/black distances?