About the North Pole Environment
Commentary
on the puzzling summertime of 2003 by Dr. Norbert Untersteiner
What
is happening to all the images from the North Pole? As Winter cold
and darkness falls over the North Pole, snow falls, and blowing
snow or ice covers the camera lens. The North Pole is in winter
darkness from October until March, and the North Pole web
cam will be redeployed in April. |
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Web Cam #1
9/4/03 13:03 UTC |
Web Cam #2
9/4/03 03:30 UTC |
With the approach
of winter
cold and darkness, the melt ponds have frozen,
and a recent snow blizzard has covered them with wind-blown
snow. |
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Web Cam #1
7/8/03 17:48 UTC |
Web Cam #2
7/4/03 22:07 UTC |
Web Cam #2
7/9/03 06:22 UTC |
Why are there pools of water at
the North Pole? The water is meltwater
from the snow melting in Summer temperatures that are above freezing.
The pools of water are called melt ponds, and are observed at both
web cam locations. On the Web Cam 2 photographs, notice that the
leg of the stand appears to have grown thicker between July 4 and
July 9, 2003. The new "thickness" is the battery canister,
which contains lithium batteries, which are light. The hole that
was drilled for the canister is probably flooded by the meltwater,
and the canister is floating up. This is good, since it means that
the water won't get into the canister or the electrical connector
on the lid. However, we hope that the canister won't float much
higher and fall over.
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What
are the rose colors seen in some photographs? The
rose colors recorded by both
Web Cams in May 2003 were not seen in any of the
web cam photographs from 2002. However, similar rose colors
were recorded in artwork by Arctic scientist and explorer, Fridtjof
Nansen. |
Why
is it so cloudy in Spring at the North Pole? Clouds
are produced when the North Pole experiences Spring
warming and the beginning of Summer melting. Water
is evaporated from the
melting snow surface, forming the fog and low clouds that
are seen
in
Spring/Summer pictures from the North Pole. Photo from June
2002 |
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5/3/02, 20:34 UTC
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6/6/02, 16:01 UTC
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5/3/02 Bright
sunshine with warm temperatures of 15 F. Sun light from the
Pacific Ocean side of the globe. The variations of snow depth
can be seen in the image. 6/6/02 Spring
melting can be seen by comparing the snow in this photograph
with the preceding image from 5/03/02, just a month earlier. |
4/29/02,
17:25 UTC Sun light from the Pacific Ocean side of the
globe (shadows cast to the right). Jumbled ice on horizon is
the pressure ridge at the edge of the floe. From looking at
the anemometer, you can see the wind has shifted from the first
image and is blowing towards Europe. |
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5/1/02,
00:24 UTC Sun is a little lower in the sky and the rosy
colors are typical of twilight at the North Pole. The white
spot in the left is the sun. The haze on the horizon is either
clouds or "sea smoke". "Sea smoke" is moisture which has evaporated
from small regions of open water. |
5/1/02
19:06 UTC In this image, the surface
is covered by fog and low clouds. Radiation energy is trapped
near the surface and thus the temperatures have increased to
a very warm 27 F. |
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First
image received from the North Pole,
4/28/02 10:28 UTC, Sun is on the European side of the globe
(shadows cast to the left). Snow conditions are typical for
cold temperature of 6 F. In the foreground we see 40-50 cm of
snow on top of the ice floe which is approximately 2.5 meters
thick. From the anemometer,
you can see the wind is blowing from Europe. |
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8/30/02 01:43 UTC |
9/9/02 09:32 UTC |
9/18/02 22:45 UTC |
The sun is low in the sky in Autumn. As Winter cold and darkness
falls over the North Pole, snow falls, and blowing snow or ice
will cover the camera lens. There may still be a bit of possible
sunlight left in the season, and the melting from that sunlight,
or sublimination by dry winds, may serve to remove the snow from
the camera lens, but with the onset of winter, the camera will
eventually remain snow covered. The North Pole is in winter
darkness from October until March.
What is Universal Time? GMT and UTC explained here
More Information :
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