2024 melt season buoy data

[uniquorn]

With the first signs of bottom melt on SIMB3 2024H it's time to start the 2024 melt season buoy data thread. As always, best efforts to get the analysis here correct but most of it will be done 'quickly' in near real time using raw data and it's highly likely that no one else is checking it.

There are a lot more SIMB3's this year so feel free to adopt one and keep an eye on it.

Bottom melt appears to have started in the western Beaufort Sea at 74.56 N, 155.4 EW!, the location of ice mass balance buoy 651330:

Snap! 2024H has begun bottom melt nearby a year later at 74.51, -157.06

Ice TypeFYI
FYI with no snow. Appears to be full-winter ice, and is surprisingly thin. Especially with no snow cover.

Snow depth has increased since deployment to ~8cm, air temps peaked at 1.625C turning negative at low sun, buoy temps peaked higher at 8.56C so probably sunny. First image optimised to show recent ice temps at -1C to -5C
Comparison of (mislabelled?) 2021#9 and 2024H apr15 to may 2023 and 2024

Could be due to ocean temperature as that location is where warm jets from the Barrow Canyon may drift and there is also a trough near that area where warmer pacific water may be sinking from the Chukchi plateau https://data.marine.copernicus.eu/-/764iscr6my

[uniquorn]

On the Atlantic side Argo Float 6904242 shows the West Spitzbergen Current (WSC) peaking at 4.55C with possibly another 6 months before the next warm fluctuation reaches Fram Strait/Barents

https://fleetmonitoring.euro-argo.eu/float/6904242

[Jim Hunt]

There are a lot more SIMB3's this year so feel free to adopt one and keep an eye on it.

There are indeed! My "manual" workflow needs updating 

I think I'll "adopt" one or two of the ones in the Lincoln Sea. Which ones remains to be seen, but here's my own humble effort for 2024H:

Thanks for the heads up. My own version, including the latest data, suggests the call may be slightly premature?

[uniquorn]

I think I'll "adopt" one or two of the ones in the Lincoln Sea.

Great, snowtatos and albedometers. If you ever want to see buoy temps above and below the ice  try adding alpha to the ax.fill lines:

ax.fill_between(timestamp, snow_height, 0, color="white", zorder=2, alpha=0.2)

Following on from https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,4176.msg401422.html#msg401422
some more detail on 2024I

1. Check the snow height using 2cm temperature difference
2. Core ice temp of thin ice warming quickly to -3.5C
3. Ocean temp possibly already affected by warmer atmo. Could just be warmer water.

[uniquorn]

Had an idea to use the SIMB3's for ocean temperature. dtc128 is at roughly 2m depth so here is a visualisation of those temperatures for 2024B to 2024I, mar20-may20
edit: there are some anomalies on dtc128, changed it to dtc125

and a comparison with cmems potential temp at 2.6m
https://data.marine.copernicus.eu/-/pogm3vzoj0

[echoughton]

Jim, I'm sure you've seen this. One takeaway I read is that the research doesn't take into consideration the possibility that the seawater has been rushing underneath the glacier for years or decades before they identified it. Your thoughts?
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/20/climate/doomsday-glacier-melt-antarctica-climate-intl/index.html?Date=20240520&Profile=CNN&utm_content=1716246010&utm_medium=social&u

[uniquorn]

Argo Float 1902597 found some open water north of Laptev on may25 to surface and upload some profile data. Possible cold eddies at 70m depth. The cooler surface layer was increasing steadily until nearing the Gakkel Ridge. Salinity near surface steadily increasing towards the Atlantic side.
https://fleetmonitoring.euro-argo.eu/float/1902597

https://go.nasa.gov/4e36Hvl (heavy contrast)

[uniquorn]

Had a look at the effect of snow on ArcWatch SIMB3 2023D. Ignoring the roughly 4cm freeboard that was also likely filled with snow, the snow depth is about 28cm based on the 2cm temperature difference chart.
The mean air temperature since oct1 was -21.3C, at the bottom of the snow layer it was -10.8C

https://www.cryosphereinnovation.com/deployment/300434066254600

Update on SIMB3 2023D:
About 24cm snow fell on mar3 increasing snow depth from ~28cm to ~52cm.
Average air temp since oct1 was -22.86C.
Average temp at bottom of the snow layer was -11.98C. Today, may6 it is -7.1C.
Thinnest ice was 1.2m on nov12. Today, ice has thickened by 0.6m to 1.8m

2023D update: Temperatures have risen above freezing for the whole day, peaking at +1C. SIMB3's report every 4hr.

-3.875
-2.75
-2.1875
-1.9375
-0.1875
-0.25
0.625
0.625
0.5625
0.5625
0.9375
1

Snow depth is ~50cm, has settled 1.3cm so far. Nullschool Forecast surface temps to stay above zero for the next 5days.

[uniquorn]

Follow up on 2023D:
Air temp dropped to just below freezing at -0.06C.
Ice/snow interface is at 0C (dtc32)
Core ice temp rising to -2.94C (dtc77)

A closer look at the surface distance data

https://www.cryosphereinnovation.com/deployment/300434066254600

[uniquorn]

Looks like fresh snow on 2023D, temperature dropped to minimum of -4.4C

[uniquorn]

Meanwhile in the Beaufort Sea 2024I has lost 5cm snow.
My calcs estimate roughly 20cm remaining.(default website says 8.2cm)
Buoy temperature at top of the ice is at 0C though it's likely that snow close to the buoy has already melted while the surface sounder is focused further away.

Bottom melt took 2cm on may17 and another 2cm yesterday

https://www.cryosphereinnovation.com/deployment/301434060402500

[uniquorn]

This may be a better representation of ice warming both from above and below using 2024C which has drifted over the Chukchi Plateau. Buoy temps at ice surface again approaching 0C while snow levels further away have only dropped about 5cm.

deployment photo

[uniquorn]

Beaufort/Chukchi SIMB3 snow thickness based on deployment data. Out of range data has been corrected.
Currently ranges from 5cm to 28cm.
https://www.cryosphereinnovation.com/data

edit: somehow missed 2024E which looks like it has very little snow, will include that in the next update.
added Jim Hunt's image

[uniquorn]

Possibly a few cm of fresh snow on 2024E

edit: latest data is back down to 2cm depth, see what tomorrow brings.

[uniquorn]

SIMB3 Beaufort thickness update:

As the first with surface melt, so far 2024E has lost 10cm
2024I has lost 4cm
2024B lost 3cm
2024C, D, G and H lost 2cm
2024F is winning with no loss.

[uniquorn]

Over on the Atlantic side we mustn't forget the AWI meereis buoys.

There are 4 snowbuoys still active showing 20-62cm snow. Thermistor buoy T105 looks buried. Both co-located with SIMB3 2023D showing that 52cm snow reducing to 40cm, recent high air temp of 1.75C, top of buoy temp was 7.5C, so sunny.

[uniquorn]

Quick look at insolation on 2024O:

Perhaps no surprise that incident sunlight minus reflected sunlight increases as the snow layer changes with increase in air temperature. Those peak air temps look too high, they are identical to top of buoy temp dtc0.


https://www.cryosphereinnovation.com/deployment/300434066151880

[uniquorn]

Over on the Atlantic side we mustn't forget the AWI meereis buoys.

There are 4 snowbuoys still active showing 20-62cm snow. Thermistor buoy T105 looks buried. Both co-located with SIMB3 2023D showing that 52cm snow reducing to 40cm, recent high air temp of 1.75C, top of buoy temp was 7.5C, so sunny.

Data appears to have stopped on the 4 active snowbuoys on jun10. Their air temperature readings peak very high, 2023S122 peaking at 4.6C, S125 peaking briefly at 3.6C. Looks like a regular shielded air temp sensor.

Snow buoys: Nicolaus, M.; Hoppmann, M.; Arndt, S.; Hendricks, S.; Katlein, C.; König-Langlo, G.; Nicolaus, A.; Rossmann, L.; Schiller, M.; Schwegmann, S.; Langevin, D.; Bartsch, A. (2017): Snow height and air temperature on sea ice from Snow Buoy measurements. Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.875638.

[uniquorn]

Default SIMB3 snow depth for the northern CAB (no deployment data) 22cm-45cm

[uniquorn]

Update on SIMB3 2024E leading the ice melt with 22cm. Looks like it is maintaining at least a 20cm melt pond. Will be interesting to see if more bottom melt occurs near the shelf break.

https://www.cryosphereinnovation.com/deployment/301434060407510