Thirty-Nine Days In The Arctic, Brought To You By The National Snow & Ice Data Center

[hatrack]

Figure 2: Sea ice extent for August 8, 2007



Figure 1: Sea ice extent for September 16, 2007



http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20070810_index.html

[pansypoo53219]

1. just checked on the north pole cam

LOOKS LIKE A FUCKING POND!

[hatrack]

2. Wow, you weren't kidding - check out this photo

http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/gallery_np.html

[XemaSab]

3. They need some kind of scale there

It's hard to tell if we're looking at open water, snow, melted and later refrozen ice, thin ice, or good old regular sea ice.

Might be water.

[XemaSab]

4. Here's the money shot:

[Xithras]

11. Could also be melt lakes.

Melt lakes are actually somewhat normal for the pole in summer, though they're getting more common. A melt lake is what forms when the surface of the ice melts, but thicker ice below remains solid. They are actually freshwater lakes, floating on ice, which is floating on the ocean.

No what to know whether that's the case here, but it's another possibility.

[sofa king]

5. If I read that page right....

...The photo hatrack links is from webcam #4, which is currently set up atop an icebreaker until it can be placed on the ice next year.

"...(Webcam) #4 is returning on the R/V Polarstern (from Alfred-Wegener-Institut) to be deployed next spring."

So, hopefully the icebreaker is well on its way home and the North Pole is not, in fact, a swimmin' hole.

[XemaSab]

6. Not necessarily....

all the photos I posted above are from webcam 4 throughout the summer.

Some of the photos do in fact show the pole as a giant swimming hole.

I see no reason to believe that the photo hatrack posted is not from the same location. :shrug:

Note well the ambiguous use of "#4 is returning." Does that mean it's returning right now or does that mean it will be returning?

I'm a Democrat, "is" is a fluid term. :)

[lfairban]

8. Look at the brightest photo.

The picture taken on 8/6 @ 3:27 shows the shadow of the icebreaker.

[XemaSab]

9. Good call.

I just got pwned. :o

[sofa king]

10. Heh.

But since "is" is a fluid term for us, you still win, since we're talking about solids versus fluids.

[lfairban]

7. What about this one.

This is web cam #1 on July 20. Isn't that water in the lower left hand corner?