The Nares Strait thread

[Freegrass]

Some sentinel images on June 16th.

One section has managed to wedge itself right into a little cove at Smith Sound.

Great image Niall! That's an even smaller tip than I thought. All that force must by going in a perfect straight line through that ice, otherwise that tip must break off if had just a little angular force on it.

Edit:
Just as I thought, that little bit of southern wind moved the ice a little north. Now we wait until tomorrow to see what happens when the current slams it back into the rocks. That bridge must be so fragile that I can't believe it will hold. But we'll see...

[gerontocrat]

Here is a little gif of Kane Basin. It looks like in the last day or two a bit more movement down the Strait.

Looking through the clouds over the Lincoln sea it looks like much is reduced to rubble.

click gif to start, runs 6 times.
Click Lincoln image to enlarge

[oren]

Indeed, it appears the miraculous floe that managed to stick its finger in the dam is now loose, and the way out of Kane should be clear.

[gerontocrat]

Images from https://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/lincoln.uk.php & kennedy

Looks like flow from the Lincoln sea towards & into the Nares Strait has commenced,
BUT
In Kennedy similar movement downstream except for NE of the glacier where there is upstream movement of some floes and downstream movement of floes even further up.

click gifs to start, run 6 times

[oren]

The weird/lucky arch held on for 5 days, but Kane is now flowing freely.

[Freegrass]

The weird/lucky arch held on for 5 days, but Kane is now flowing freely.

All it needed was a little push from a little southern wind...

[HapHazard]

Looks like it's been flowing decently for the last week.

[gerontocrat]

Sentnel 1 images from DMI at last.

I stuck images from Lincoln & Kennedy together (badly).

Am I looking at a Lincoln Sea solidly frozen with a frozen barrier towards the top of Kennedy?

click image to enlarge

[OffTheGrid]

No old boy, I'm afraid you are not.
That is unravelling fast flowing rounded foes surrounded by a sea of slush.
Most of the slush is in fact decompression cooled fresh spring water from the deep briney North of Greenland.
Where it has flowed to via the subterranean River systems occupying the expanding fault rifts that we now know the Glacial canyons of Greenland and Antarctica to be.

Sentnel 1 images from DMI at last.

I stuck images from Lincoln & Kennedy together (badly).

Am I looking at a Lincoln Sea solidly frozen with a frozen barrier towards the top of Kennedy?

click image to enlarge

[oren]

Am I looking at a Lincoln Sea solidly frozen with a frozen barrier towards the top of Kennedy?

I think not, I think it's a rush to the exit but it's all moving in Lincoln and Kennedy.
Click.

What I do wonder though is how come so much ice remains in and to the south of Kane basin, Maybe too much export for months has provided enough thick ice that manages to get stuck in there?

[be cause]

Has nares got an early winter plug ?

[grixm]

There's a big floe heading for the strait right now. Will it plug it, or break up into pieces?

[oren]

That's a really big one. Usually they break but this is interesting.

[John_the_Younger]

It'll break (I say).  Floes used to be thicker and they always broke.  Once, one seemed to stop at Hans Island for a day, but the next day it was broken and slid by.  What closes the Strait, I believe, is wind from the south making floes stand still long enough for fast ice to form.  A gyre in Kane Basin sometimes helps the process.

[Niall Dollard]

It cracked.

[Niall Dollard]

Plenty of blocks rolling and cracking up, down the Kennedy Channel.

 28 hr timelapse on Ramm-b

https://col.st/9gmPx

[Niall Dollard]

Since just before Christmas a new arch has formed in the Kane Basin.

Here is a GIF running through from 24th, 25th, 27th and 28th December.

[Niall Dollard]

Happy New Year !

And as we head into a new one, here is the updated list of new arch formation in the Nares Strait.  We start 2024 with an arch already well established since before Christmas. Hopefully this arch will continue to last until well into the summer.

2024 - December 23rd (2023)
2023 - March 30th
2022 - No arch
2021 - December 5th (2020).
2020 - December 17 (2019)
2019 - No arch
2018 - March 1st
2017 - No arch (in the strait proper)
2016 - December 6th (2015)
2015 - February 13th
2014 - January 5th (northern arch started - southern just after)
2013 - November 8th (2012)
2012 - December 6th (2011)
2011 - January 29th
2010 - No arch
2009 - Visible sat image shows arch at extreme north end of channel on March 10. Start date was sometime before this.
2008 - April 1st
2007 - No arch

[oren]

Nice, thanks for the update.
The last 5 years had 2 good arches, one late and 2 with no arch at all, so it's good news.