#ice coverage

Ice cover is at a near-record low for this time of year. No ice can affect the food web and cause dangerous snowstorms.

Great Lakes ice coverage surpasses 90 percent, most observed since 1994

This image of the Great Lakes was taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite on February 19, 2014. NASA reported that NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory put ice cover at just over 80%.

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According to the latest NOAA reports, the average ice concentration on the Great Lakes has exceeded 90% as of this morning, coverage not achieved since 1994, when ice…

Earth in 1000 years

Our team is finally assembling in Greenland and our ship, the Arctic Endeavour, will soon arrive from Newfoundland. We are now looking north at what is the most formidable obstacle in our path: the sea ice that lies between us and the North Water Polynya in northern Baffin Bay.

There’s a reason only icebreakers have attempted to get into the North Water Polynya so early in the season: this enormous swath of year-round open water is surrounded by hundreds of kilometres of ice.  In the weeks to come, we will need to find a safe route from Upernavik, Greenland into Melville Bay. From there, we will make our push into the North Water Polynya. The travel window is narrow: an ice arch across Nares Strait on the northern end of the polynya prevents an inflow of polar pack ice. Once that arch breaks in early summer, polar ice streams southward through Nares Strait. This flood of ice may restrict passage across the North Water.

To find the ice window, we will rely heavily on the best ice data and ice forecasting available. Our partners at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center will be relaying daily updates to the boat via satellite so that we can make decisions. In addition, the Canadian Ice Service provides excellent regional ice analyses. Below is a recent sea ice map created by Jeremy Davies, our marine spatial analysis manager, based on that info:

It is no accident that we have Knut Espen Solberg as our captain and resident ice expert.  After four years of navigating ice in the Northwest Passage and nearly a decade wriggling through other sea ice, Knut easily ranks among the most experienced high-latitude sailors. He continues a proud Norwegian tradition started by that country’s explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen more than 100 years ago. Here is Knut’s most recent ice analysis, sent to us via satellite phone from the Arctic Endeavour:

At this time of the year, we usually experience a high melt rate in Baffin Bay. The open water lead along the Greenlandic coast opens northward, providing access to communities like Upernavik. So far this season, the ice melt has been slow and large ice concentrations prevail throughout much of Baffin Bay. The ice edge in the southeastern portion of the Bay is closer to the Greenland coast than has been the case in recent years, resulting in a fairly narrow lead up into Disko Bay. In the northern part of Disko Bay, there are areas of up to 5/10 ice coverage, reducing access to more northern communities. This loose ice can consolidate if we get strong easterly winds and that may produce an open water route all the way to Upernavik.