About the North Pole Environment
From the NOAA/PMEL Live
North Pole Web Cam
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. |
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. |
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.
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. |
5/3/02, 20:34 UTC | 6/6/02, 16:01 UTC |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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
Web cam Home and Acknowledgments | |
Daylight and Darkness at the North Pole | |