New Arctic Portal from DMI

[Espen]

A new Arctic Portal from DMI is on the air, now with animations of several glaciers from Greenland, wonder from where they got the inspiration?

http://polarportal.dk/en/home/

[RaenorShine]

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery

The changes they've made across the site though is impressive, and a great step forward from last years launch.

Having the ability across the site to view previous maps images and graphs is a great step forwards (and should be implemented on other ice sites!).

Some of the new products are cool also (all with history) :

• A new accumulated image of SMB which clearly shows the differential between this years melt/growth pattern and  the 1990-2011 average (more precipitation in SE, snow drought and melt in the NW)
• A new Albedo Anomaly map on the SMB page showing the 'Dark Snow' effect
• New Grace map and graph on the total changes page.
• A new weather page http://polarportal.dk/en/weather/ which provides temperature, wind and precipitation anomaly maps for the arctic.

My only quibble with the site as such is that there still does not seem to be any raw data files for the more graphically gifted among us (not me!) to create with and analyse.  I'm still stuck with lifting any values off the graph, an imprecise art at the best of times.

It's a huge step forwards in the information available on Greenland though for us amateur watchers and well done to all involved.

[Neven]

It's a great thing they've done. Unfortunately, the images are static (which means they aren't updated automatically). This makes them basically useless for the ASIG. I added some of the Greenland ice sheet stuff anyway (albedo map, SMB graph), and would have loved to have added the wind+temp map.

[RunningChristo]

Nice stuff Espen & Neven! I just noticed the change at the ASIG-page. Greenland is getting more and more attention, no surprise when you come to think about the global impact it may affect!

Agree that the best for the ASIG page is links that update automatically, time is precious and we must scan quickly...

[portalen]

Thank you very much all for your nice comments on the newly updated polarportal and also of course for adding us to the Arctic sea ice graphs.

It's been a fair bit of work getting it together but we're pretty happy with the results, there will likely be a few more things added in the next few months too. One of these will be a download data button. This will (unfortunately) not be all the available data as we are constrained by various agreements, but I think it's fair to say our philosophy is to share as much data for free as possible. The promice data is already available via their website for example (promice.org).
The SMB model data (and quite a lot of other variables output by the model at 5km resolution) for the 1989 - 2013 period will also be available for download via ftp soon.

The weather pages are based on the ECMWF operational analysis so we have to be a bit careful what data is made available. However, it's probably fair to say that if there is some data you particularly want (for research purposes) then just send us an email and we'll see what we can arrange.

Neven: I am not quite sure what you mean by "Unfortunately, the images are static (which means they aren't updated automatically). This makes them basically useless for the ASIG" as the images are updated once daily. Is there something in the webpage set up that you would prefer to see?

Any other feedback welcome (though note we have pretty harsh time/budget constraints right now!)

Best wishes
(on behalf of)
The polarportal team

[Neven]

Neven: I am not quite sure what you mean by "Unfortunately, the images are static (which means they aren't updated automatically). This makes them basically useless for the ASIG" as the images are updated once daily. Is there something in the webpage set up that you would prefer to see?

Hi, portalen. Welcome and thanks a lot for sharing the info!

What I meant is this: If I want to use for instance the wind+temp map for the Arctic Sea Ice Graphs page, I just copy its address and then insert the image. But the url for the image is this: http://polarportal.dk/fileadmin/polarportal/weather/Wthr_Raw_LA_EN_<b>20140520</b>.png

Now I presume that when the image is automatically updated, the URL changes as well (to: /Wthr_Raw_LA_EN_<b>20140521</b>.png. This means that the image on the ASIG won't change. Is this correct?

When I copy Greenland SMB maps from DMI, the URL doesn't have a date in it: http://beta.dmi.dk/uploads/tx_dmidatastore/webservice/b/m/s/y/a/todaysmb.png

This image is then automatically updated on the ASIG as well.

It's not a disaster, of course, and I don't want to increase anyone's work load, but it would be better for me, of course, when ASIG images are automatically updated.

[portalen]

Ok thanks for the feedback!

Unfortunately this is not an easy one for us to fix - we need to have the dates in the URLs for the animations to work. Of course the plot on dmi.dk does not have the animation so that's why it automatically updates from there

I will anyway put it on the to do list for the next update to the polar portal to see if there is a way round it - but honestly I don't know if/when that will be.

Also we have now fixed the bug that affected today's plots.

Best wishes from sunny Copenhagen

 

[RaenorShine]

Many thanks portalen for taking the time to come back to us.

I fully understand that you will not be able to publish all of the data freely as it's expensive to produce and not all of it is your data to share. It's great news that you will be making the SMB data available at a later date though, and you have more things in the pipeline.

For amateur watchers having summary data in an easily usable format such as a flat text file or csv is really useful.  Data such as this which is available for IJIS Extent and CT Area for arctic sea ice enable our analysis in the Arctic Area & Extent thread https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,743.0.html and the production of a raft of graphs/comparisons.

[Neven]

Ok thanks for the feedback!

Unfortunately this is not an easy one for us to fix - we need to have the dates in the URLs for the animations to work. Of course the plot on dmi.dk does not have the animation so that's why it automatically updates from there

I will anyway put it on the to do list for the next update to the polar portal to see if there is a way round it - but honestly I don't know if/when that will be.

Yes, that makes sense. Maybe just shut those animations off? 

If you find a solution, great. If you don't, great too. Thanks again.

[crandles]

Is it possible to have the images with dates in the URL like

http://polarportal.dk/fileadmin/polarportal/weather/Wthr_Raw_LA_EN_20140520.png

so the animations work but also have a

http://polarportal.dk/fileadmin/polarportal/weather/Wthr_Raw_LA_EN_latestimage.png
and copy the latest date image to this location each time a new image is uploaded?