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Sep. 16th, 2007
Northwest passage, northeast passage
Sep. 16th, 2007 09:43 pmThe Northwest Passage has been open for about three weeks now. It is less navigable than it was at the start of September: for a short distance at the far eastern end of it (between Baffin Island and Devon Island) there is now a small amount of drift ice (0-10%). But ice continues to retreat north in the Beaufort sea (north of Alaska).
The northeast passage (aka the Northern Sea Route - NSR) is open, although there is a considerable amount of drift ice (10-30%) just to the east of the Vilkitsky Strait (between the northern coast of Siberia and the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago). Adrian "Wrong Way" Flanagan, a yachtsman circumnavigating the globe single-handed by an unusual route, is attempting the NSR east to west. Given these ice conditions, and after waiting for ages for them to improve, he has wisely decided against passing the Strait in his small and fragile craft, and is intending to hitch a ride aboard a merchant ship in Tiksi, to pass through the strait from the Laptev Sea into the Kara Sea.
For recent ice charts in the area, see the National Ice Centre. Note that these are quite conservative, and largely based on active radar satellite sensing.
The ice pack north of Severnaya Zemlya, and across the Arctic Ocean to the Beaufort Sea, has a very disturbing and unprecedented shape. First of all, the eastern edge of this pack cuts deep into the heart of an area which has been covered in pack ice since satellite records began.
Secondly, compare these ice images: two weeks ago, one week ago, yesterday.
Compare them also with this , which is the mean ice concentration for September 2000 (a more typical recent September).
Severnaya Zemlya is the coastal Russian archipelago at about 100 degrees East. In a normal year, this is locked in the core arctic ice pack, and even in September there is open water nearby only within a few hundred miles of the coast: the Kara Sea to the west and the Laptev Sea to the east. This year, Severnaya Zemlya is connected to the polar ice pack only by a narrow tongue of pack ice, which is thinning and breaking up around 83 degrees north, and this process is visibly continuing well into September. There is a considerable area of ice-free open water north of 83 degrees - the NatIce charts show broken ice north of 83 degrees from 110 east around to 170 west, and as far north as 85 degrees (around 165 east).
The NatIce charts also show this ice moving north.
Update: here is a satellite photo of this tongue of ice, taken this morning. The pole is to the upper left, Siberia is to the lower right. Red is ice; blue/black is sea; green is land; white is cloud.
The northeast passage (aka the Northern Sea Route - NSR) is open, although there is a considerable amount of drift ice (10-30%) just to the east of the Vilkitsky Strait (between the northern coast of Siberia and the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago). Adrian "Wrong Way" Flanagan, a yachtsman circumnavigating the globe single-handed by an unusual route, is attempting the NSR east to west. Given these ice conditions, and after waiting for ages for them to improve, he has wisely decided against passing the Strait in his small and fragile craft, and is intending to hitch a ride aboard a merchant ship in Tiksi, to pass through the strait from the Laptev Sea into the Kara Sea.
For recent ice charts in the area, see the National Ice Centre. Note that these are quite conservative, and largely based on active radar satellite sensing.
The ice pack north of Severnaya Zemlya, and across the Arctic Ocean to the Beaufort Sea, has a very disturbing and unprecedented shape. First of all, the eastern edge of this pack cuts deep into the heart of an area which has been covered in pack ice since satellite records began.
Secondly, compare these ice images: two weeks ago, one week ago, yesterday.
Compare them also with this , which is the mean ice concentration for September 2000 (a more typical recent September).
Severnaya Zemlya is the coastal Russian archipelago at about 100 degrees East. In a normal year, this is locked in the core arctic ice pack, and even in September there is open water nearby only within a few hundred miles of the coast: the Kara Sea to the west and the Laptev Sea to the east. This year, Severnaya Zemlya is connected to the polar ice pack only by a narrow tongue of pack ice, which is thinning and breaking up around 83 degrees north, and this process is visibly continuing well into September. There is a considerable area of ice-free open water north of 83 degrees - the NatIce charts show broken ice north of 83 degrees from 110 east around to 170 west, and as far north as 85 degrees (around 165 east).
The NatIce charts also show this ice moving north.
Update: here is a satellite photo of this tongue of ice, taken this morning. The pole is to the upper left, Siberia is to the lower right. Red is ice; blue/black is sea; green is land; white is cloud.
