What the Buoys are telling

[Anne]

It's O-buoy #0 on the overview. I noticed that #0 was given a profile on the overview some days ago, so was waiting for it to go live.

[Jim Hunt]

I guess it is the same as 2013F ?

2013F says it's colocated with ITP 70, and possibly [http://www.oc.nps.edu/~stanton/fluxbuoy/deploy/buoy30.html]AOFB 30[/url] is there too. However I see only one other buoy from the O-Buoy 10 camera. Maybe they're not all in the same place?

[ghoti]

Okay now 2012M really appears to be on the move. I don't recall ever seeing the longitutde more west than 15W and it is beyond 16W now. Pity clouds are very heavy on MODIS for that area now.

[Espen]

Ghoti,

Yes, the red dot is moving towards the coast:

http://imb.crrel.usace.army.mil/irid_data/2012M_track.png

[Jim Hunt]

2012M really appears to be on the move.

It does indeed. I'm not sure how useful it will be given the uncertainty in the position information, but here's what my new track map for 2012M looks like when superimposed on Terra from August 24th using Google Earth:

[Espen]

Jim Google Earth / Maps is not calibrated exactly, there is a difference of ? km.
You can test it by using Joe Island as example.

[Jim Hunt]

Jim Google Earth / Maps is not calibrated exactly, there is a difference of ? km.
You can test it by using Joe Island as example.

I tried your test Espen, using the same methodology. Whilst Google Earth's built in "borders" are obviously out of whack (see above also) the alignment with the MODIS imagery seems pretty good. Certainly better than the "jitter" on 2012M's reported position:

[Anne]

...And O-buoy #9 is up and running, over in the Laptev Sea where it appears to be foggy.

[ghoti]

Seems buoy 2012M reported in again today - from a long way away! I guess it is in free drift now.

[Alistair]

Buoy 9 looks to have been picked up judging by the railing in the latest pic (failed in trying to insert copy).

[ghoti]

I don't think it was deployed yet. I also see that the ship isn't all that far from the 2 french sailors on their catamaran who are looking for a ride. They are 82N 170W and this boat seems to be 80N 140W according to Obuoy 9's GPS

[Jim Hunt]

O-Buoy 9 has made it onto the ice at long last, to be followed by an ITP by the look of it.

In the meantime the Admiral Makarov is on its way to pick up Sébastien Roubinet and Vincent Berthet from further north.

[Jim Hunt]

The view from O-Buoy #7 has recently changed for the first time in quite a while. Check out the end of the video.

[jdallen]

The view from has recently changed for the first time in quite a while. Check out the end of the video.

Wow. Just wow.

[Jim Hunt]

There are two new kids on the block this morning. 2013G is a standard IMB in the Beaufort. 2013H is a seasonal IMB that would seem to be the one in view from O-Buoy #9.

In addition, and if the sensors are to be believed, 2013B has lost 7 cm off the bottom in the last 8 hours. Here's my increasingly hard to decipher chart of temperature profiles:

[ghoti]

Well 2013B has had a somewhat erratic bottom profile. It supposedly gained a meter on the bottom in less than a week at the end of July. Maybe that chunk of ice that lodged under the bottom sensor is disintegrating.

I find it rather frustrating how unreliable the buoy data seems to be in general. This is a pity for equipment that is so expensive to build and deploy. I keep thinking that perhaps an approach following the concept of nano-sats but for ice buoys might be a possible improvement.

[Jim Hunt]

I find it rather frustrating how unreliable the buoy data seems to be in general.

Same here. The thickness reading from 2013B has now bounced back up again.

Data from three new ITPs are now up on the web. ITP 70 in particular is colocated with all sorts of other gear, including a WaveBuoy with a webcam.



Here's a video from Woods Hole on the "challenges" involved in trying to deploy ice tethered profilers all over the Arctic:

[anonymous]

Still trying to wrap my head around that chart:

Why was 2012G completely unimpressed of Arctic summer 2013 and how come the melting kicked in like someone told them, while the temperature record is more or less smooth?

2012L had 1.5m of melting in 2 month. If correct it nicely proves why FYI is prone to disappear within one melt season.

SIMB 2013H was dropped at an interesting location. Anybody ready to bet on whether it will pass Fram Strait the upcoming winter?

[Jim Hunt]

OBuoy 7 seems to now be adrift in a vast expanse of open ocean:

[ghoti]

As usual the buoys are telling us unreliable things. The last ice thickness data from this buoy in Sept was 157 cm. It has been a bad year for buoy data. I wish there was a better alternative to suggest.

On another point this sure doesn't look like the Arctic being described by Rose in the Mail.

[Peter Ellis]

Not sure why you think the buoy was unreliable?  Last ice thickness was in August (not Sept) and that looks reasonable from the camera.  In the first week of Sept, the floe fractured almost at the base of the buoy, and the ice edge has gradually crept closer to the camera since then.  Yesterday it presumably finally broke free, and happens to be pointing away from the floe towards open ocean.

[Espen]

From NP web cam #2  do we know the name of the ship?:

[Jim Hunt]

Despite air temperatures around -8 °C the Beaufort still seems to be melting. OBuoy 7 looks to be adrift now (see above) and IMB 2012H has lost 20cm off the bottom in the last 2 days or so. The temperature profile is flatlining until the thermistors are exposed to the cold air:

[jdallen]

Despite air temperatures around -8 °C the Beaufort still seems to be melting. OBuoy 7 looks to be adrift now (see above) and <snipped url> has lost 20cm off the bottom in the last 2 days or so. The temperature profile is flatlining until the thermistors are exposed to the cold air:

Jim - I'd be real suspicious of those readings.  Heat flow wise, you'd need seawater temps of almost 1.5C for that kind of change over two days. I'd lean towards some sort of mechanical change, rather than a thermally driven one.

[Andreas T]

How is the bottom of the ice and top of snow surface position determined? Are there sensors for that? I vaguely remember reading a discussion which seemed to say temperature gradients have to be used to judge that. At this time of the year with ice and water at very similar or identical temperature, this could be very easily out? Corrections welcome!
At the upper end I would interpret the temperature curve based on heat capacity of the ice:  air temperatures change more rapidly than ice temps, we don't know what air temps were between 15th and 23rd Sept. Thermocouple 12 and 13 can only have warmed that much by gaining heat from ice below if thermocouple 14 and 15 have dropped and heat capacity of ice at 13 is less than at 14 (porosity / drained brine inclusions?)
Changing cooling rates at the top surface also have an effect, wind, snowcover would affect that strongly I think. Noticeable is the higher end of the "flatline" indicating air.

[Jim Hunt]

jdallen - I'm suspicious of the IMB readings too! See previous discussion about "false bottoms" etc. However one can't deny that some ice in the vicinity of OBuoy 7 has melted!

Andreas - When they work, there's dedicated top and bottom sensors. See the diagram at:

http://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,327.msg10165.html#msg10165

See the raw data for hourly air temperatures, or alternatively for the dailies:

[jdallen]

jdallen - I'm suspicious of the IMB readings too! See previous discussion about "false bottoms" etc. However one can't deny that some ice in the vicinity of OBuoy 7 has melted!

<recovering from giggles> yah, I'd say the ice around '7  has become a tad thin to walk on

[Jim Hunt]

<recovering from giggles> yah, I'd say the ice around '7  has become a tad thin to walk on

You gotta laugh, or you'd cry?

As you pointed out earlier, perhaps more relevant at this juncture is the water temperature under 2012H? (Dates are UK style)

[Jim Hunt]

A bit more relevant information about IMB 2012H. Here's the buoy's recent track superimposed on a slightly cloudy view of the Beaufort Sea from the Terra satellite on September 22nd using Google Earth:

[jdallen]

Yes, it is laugh otherwise I'd cry.

That spike on or about 9/21 does look significant, and coresponds to about 1.5cm/day melt rate.  Considering heat flow and temp in the immediate area, existing ice will continue to thin even while new ice is forming.  (My "rule of thumb" is, with seawater at -1.8C, each degree below that is good for supporting about 10CM of ice.)

That melt won't stop until average temperatures drop below about  -12C, if we assume ~1M thickness. It won't be a lot, possibly as little as a MM/day, but it will add up.

[Jim Hunt]

(My "rule of thumb" is, with seawater at -1.8C, each degree below that is good for supporting about 10CM of ice.)

In the Beaufort it's more like -1.4C at present.

Meanwhile over on the Laptev side of the pack the Russian Research Vessel Akademik Fedorov has deposited 4 new Ice Tethered Profilers. The surface salinity of most of them seems to be under 31, but ITP 73 (nearest the "Polar Polynya") shows more like 33:

[jdallen]

(My "rule of thumb" is, with seawater at -1.8C, each degree below that is good for supporting about 10CM of ice.)

In the Beaufort it's more like -1.4C at present.

Meanwhile over on the Laptev side of the pack the Russian Research Vessel ....

-1.4 means a bunch more heat to dump.  Looking at the temps at depth also suggests to me that ice much over 2M may have a hard time forming.

Regarding SSS, I am fascinated to see the gradient that appears to follow the ice margin on the Barents side of the CAB. If we have active weather and cloudiness, the mechanism that cooled our summer may retard increases in strength and volume this winter. Wonder where this years cold pole will be...

[Phil.]

jdallen - I'm suspicious of the IMB readings too! See previous discussion about "false bottoms" etc. However one can't deny that some ice in the vicinity of OBuoy 7 has melted!

<recovering from giggles> yah, I'd say the ice around '7  has become a tad thin to walk on

Looking at the last few days of the movie it appears to have got rather rough there too!

[jdallen]

jdallen - I'm suspicious of the IMB readings too! See previous discussion about "false bottoms" etc. However one can't deny that some ice in the vicinity of OBuoy 7 has melted!

<recovering from giggles> yah, I'd say the ice around '7  has become a tad thin to walk on

Looking at the last few days of the movie it appears to have got rather rough there too!

Not the most conducive to refreeze, for certain.

[Jim Hunt]

OBuoy 7 is back in amongst some ice:

[Andreas T]

Where does that ice come from? The buoy is drifting freely, so to drift into the ice it would have to drift at different speed from the ice (different freeboard / wind resistance?) Could this be snow which has fallen onto seawater below 0 deg and been formed into lumps by wave action? Bouy data show wind and increased humidity on 28th.

[Peter Ellis]

I think it's nilas that got rapidly covered with snow.  Look at the movie frame by frame from about 9:56 onwards.
http://obuoy.datatransport.org/monitor#buoy7/movie

[jdallen]

I think it's nilas that got rapidly covered with snow.  Look at the movie frame by frame from about 9:56 onwards.
http://obuoy.datatransport.org/monitor#buoy7/movie

I think you have the right of it Peter; for that to be solid ice, it would need to be a meter thick to have than much freeboard.  That would take weeks to form at far lower temperatures than we currently have seen.  It must be snow as you say.  Excellent observation and catch.

[Jim Hunt]

A sunny still image:

[Pmt111500]

That image resembles about nothing I've seen in the Baltic, some spring warm spell-cold spell cycle might do that, but I'd say 90% of coast living finns would recognize that to be from Arctic or Antarctic.

[Phil.]

I think it's nilas that got rapidly covered with snow.  Look at the movie frame by frame from about 9:56 onwards.
http://obuoy.datatransport.org/monitor#buoy7/movie

I think you have the right of it Peter; for that to be solid ice, it would need to be a meter thick to have than much freeboard.  That would take weeks to form at far lower temperatures than we currently have seen.  It must be snow as you say.  Excellent observation and catch.

Makes sense, if you look at the aari.ru map you see the ice pack in that region is bordered by nilas, the buoy was drifting north in open ocean and ended up in the nilas.  The frame at 21:21:27 shows the buoy just inside the edge at 75º19"51'.

[Jim Hunt]

The sun isn't shining on O-Buoy #7 today:

[Phil.]

Having spent a long time dallying around 84ºN the N Pole webcam finally started drifting south a couple of weeks ago and has now reached 82ºN at the entrance to the Fram.
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/PAWS819920_atmos_recent.html
Since it's toppled over and buried in snow I imagine the reason it hasn't been retrieved is because they can't find it?  It would be interesting if it survived the winter and popped up somewhere off Greenland when the ice melts in the spring.

[Jim Hunt]

Pictures of the recovery of O-Buoy #8 by the Louis S. St-Laurent on the Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project section of the Woods Hole web site:

http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=124276&tid=201&cid=97233&ct=362

[Jim Hunt]

Having spent a long time dallying around 84ºN the N Pole webcam finally started drifting south a couple of weeks ago and has now reached 82ºN at the entrance to the Fram

Sorry, but I only just noticed your post. This sort of thing is also being discussed over at:

"Drift, Deformation and Fracture of Sea Ice"

[Andreas T]

From NP web cam #2  do we know the name of the ship?:

NOAA says: NOTE: The polar web cams have been picked up by scientists aboard research vessel KV Svalbard on September 20, 2013. This marks the end of season for the 2013 North Pole Web cam deployments.
photos of norwegian coastguard ship Svalbard here:
http://m.theforeigner.no/pages/columns/norways-coldtech-probes-the-icy-unknown/

[Andreas T]

almost two months of air temperatures around -20degC still have not yet increased thickness of ice at buoy 2012B. Is that snow cover helping to reduce heat loss?
http://imb.crrel.usace.army.mil/2013B.htm

[jdallen]

almost two months of air temperatures around -20degC still have not yet increased thickness of ice at buoy 2012B. Is that snow cover helping to reduce heat loss?
http://imb.crrel.usace.army.mil/2013B.htm

I'd wager that is about to change abruptly, as it is streaking south wards.  I'll add that, absent ridging, ice will thicken to about 10CM per degree below freezing, Celsius.  By extension, -20C and 2 meters is about right.  The restriction applied by ice on heat flow inhibits greater than that during the freeze, and snow even more.

[ghoti]

Not many active buoys to watch at this point this year. I'm starting to wonder when and where the news buoys for this year will appear.

I see the earliest month for buoy deployment on the International Arctic Buoy Programme webpage is March. So maybe we'll have new buoys to monitor soon. I think the north pole buoys went in after the Borneo camp was set up last year so probably another month before we get to watch those webcams.

[Anne]

O-buoys #9 and #10 are transmitting. O-buoy #7 is shown on the overview but doesn't seem to be sending any information apart from a fuzzy image.
http://obuoy.datatransport.org/monitor#overview/gpstracks