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Environment

Sea ice cam: View Arctic sea north of Alaska

Print Friday, 04 November 2011 10:13 Written by Doug O'Harra, Alaska Dispatch



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Barrow sea ice cam.
Barrow sea ice cam.
A live glimpse of the Arctic Ocean from downtown Barrow, Alaska, can be conjured via a webcam sponsored by the Sea Ice Group at the Geophysical Institute in Fairbanks. The webcam, which refreshes every few minutes, shows the view looking north from the roof of the bank building.

A caution: Daylight is meager this time of year in the most northern town of the United States. Sunrise this week is after 11 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time with sunset coming before 5 p.m. according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.

The sun sets for about two months on Nov. 19.

So, during the upcoming dark months, the best chance to get a decent view of the frozen sea would be to sign on to the webcam during the four to five hours of daily twilight in the afternoon.

For an archived view from Oct. 29, check out this weather blog from Fairbanks.

"The Sea Ice cam at Barrow was out of service for quite a while, but it's back now," posted Rick, who maintains a lively commentary on Far North weather. "Here's an image from 10 AM Saturday from the UAF Sea Ice Group, showing unconsolidated sea ice offshore. Well, it is almost Halloween."

Providing record of sea-ice cover

The coverage is part of the Barrow Sea Ice Observatory, which sometimes includes radar, forecasts and blog reports of the fate and status of ice by Barrow. Another ice observatory is located in Wales, Alaska, facing the Chukchi Sea. But its webcam was offline for maintenance this week.

"Apart from providing a visual impression of the sea-ice conditions off Barrow, these images establish a longer-term record of key dates in the seasonal evolution of the sea-ice cover," the scientists explain here. Those dates include pinning down when ice begins to form in the fall, when it begins to melt in the spring, timing of ice ponds and breakup.

The status of Arctic sea ice has become a crucial element in the monitoring of global warming, with record and near-record summer meltback acting as a harbinger for future climate change in the Arctic. In September, the extent of polar ice shrank to the second smallest area observed during the age of satellites. It has since been growing, although it remains far smaller than the average for this date over the past 30 years.

Even with morning darkness offering an inky view of black ocean, snowy streets illuminated by gleaming street lights, about 10 people per minute from all over the globe were checking in to catch a fix of current sea ice conditions early Wedneday morning.

Originally posted November 3, 2011