Sea Ice | North Pole Observations | Glaciers | Snow Cover

Since 2002, the multi-agency USA-Japan joint project entitled "North Pole Environmental Observatory" (NPEO) has deployed Web Cameras along with automatic stations and instrumentation that provide valuable air/ice/ocean data sets.

The summers of 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006, as observed by the North Pole Web Cams, were very different. (see table below). The onset of melting is typically in early June, 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. This was not observed in the other years. Freezeup began in late August in 2002, Sept 7 in 2003, and in mid-August in 2004.

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.

	Snow waterlogged Onset of melt	Widespread Melt pond coverage	Onset of freeze-up
2002
	July 29, 2002	August 18, 2002 Widespread melt pond coverage was not observed.	August 29, 2002
2003
	June 24, 2003	July 4, 2003	September 7, 2003
2004
	June 29, 2004	July 15, 2004	Started August 7, 2004; Snow-covered August 17.
2006
	June 28, 2006	July 5, 2006	Started August 11, 2006, Snow-covered August 14
2008
	June 25, 2008	June 30, 2008	Meltponds present Sep 14 and snowcovered on Sep 22 (click for large images)
	Snow waterlogged Onset of melt	Widespread Melt pond coverage	Onset of freeze-up

Find more information:

• The North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO)
• The North Pole Web Cam
• The Puzzling Arctic Summer or 2003, observed by the N. Pole Web Cam
• The Short Arctic Summer of 2004, observed by the N. Pole Web Cam