It Looks Like Clouds But It Is Sea Ice

[ad_1]
<div _ngcontent-c15 = "" innerhtml = "

There is very famous saying that atmospheric scientists like me in the undergraduate or graduate studies. It goes,

Big whorls have little whorls, That feed on their velocity; And little whorls have less whorls, And so on to viscosity.

In modern translation, "whorls" is often replaced with "whirls." Lewis Frye Richardson is the meteorologist and mathematician. He is a pioneer of modern weather forecasting. Richardson was driven by a desire to use the laws of physics to predict how the atmosphere changes. This fact was a central to his important work in terms of finite difference methods, a technique for putting complex equations in a format that the earliest computers could handle. The rhyming quote from Richardson, appearing in his classic Weather Prediction by Numerical Processes text, captured his postulation that cascading levels of turbulence that ultimately dissipates at the smallest scale described atmospheric processes. I first thought it was swirling mass of clouds, but then I realized it was sea ice. Why is sea ice swirling?

The swirls were first brought to my attention in a Tweet this week by doctoral candidate and cryospheric-climate expert Zack Labe. He tweeted "high pressure over the Beaufort Sea (#Arctic) is allowing for clear satellite views this week of the gorgeous swirling sea ice along the ice edge." By the way, Zach acquired this incredible image using the NASA Worldview website. If you are not familiar with this topic, I highly recommend it. I gave an assignment to my freshman seminar class at the University of Georgia, and the students were blown away by Worldview, but I digress. Let's talk sea ice swirls because I was just curious as a scientist and someone who just thought they looked cool. And speaking of cool, check out this animated GOES satellite loop from April 2017 shared with me by NOAA weather satellite Dr. Dan Lindsey. You will see the sea ice swirls (relatively stationary) compared to the cloud motion.

Before I discuss sea ice swirls, it is useful to discuss the "sea ice cycle." The NASA Earth Observatory website describes it:

Each year, Arctic sea ice grows through the winter, reaching its maximum extent around March. It then melts through the summer, reaching its minimum in September. By October, Arctic waters start freezing again.

In the image above, swirls of sea ice can be seen along the east coast of Greenland. The Fram Strait is a well-known passageway for sea ice transiting from the Arctic Ocean. Arctic sea ice volume. The Beaufort Gyre is a wind-driven current in the Arctic Ocean that regulates sea ice formation and climate in the northern polar region. NASA's website suggests that the "fence" or sea-ice trapping mechanism of the Beaufort Gyre has been disrupted in recent decades. Specifically, it says

until the late 1990s, would continue in the Gyre for years, growing thicker and more resistant to melt. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, however, it has not been possible to survive its journey south of the Beaufort Gyre. As a result, the Arctic sea ice has been able to pile up and form multi-year ice.

Sea ice swirls are found throughout the Arctic Beaufort Gyre region. Why do they swirl? In the NOAA Suomi NPP satellite image from March 8, 2018 (below), sea ice swirls are observed on the Canadian coast near the Labrador and Newfoundland provinces. At first glance, it is easy to think about swirling clouds, however, it is indeed swirling eddies (or whirls) of sea ice. Ocean currents and off-shore wind patterns can be organized by hundreds of miles or thousands of miles, depending on NOAA. It is not by accident that every example that I used in this discussion was from the fall or spring months. At these times, the sea is warm enough to be part of the ocean. Due to differences in water density, such eddies will often form along the boundaries of cold and warm currents.

As I close, check out NASA's perpetual ocean animation at this link. It is a fascinating look at big whirls, little whirls, and everything in between.

">

There is very famous saying that atmospheric scientists like me in the undergraduate or graduate studies. It goes,

Big whorls have little whorls, That feed on their velocity; And little whorls have less whorls, And so on to viscosity.

In modern translation, "whorls" is often replaced with "whirls." Lewis Frye Richardson is the meteorologist and mathematician. He is a pioneer of modern weather forecasting. Richardson was driven by a desire to use the laws of physics to predict how the atmosphere changes. This fact was a central to his important work in terms of finite difference methods, a technique for putting complex equations in a format that the earliest computers could handle. The rhyming quote from Richardson, appearing in his classic Weather Prediction by Numerical Processes text, captured his postulation that cascading levels of turbulence that ultimately dissipates at the smallest scale described atmospheric processes. I first thought it was swirling mass of clouds, but then I realized it was sea ice. Why is sea ice swirling?

The swirls were first brought to my attention in a Tweet this week by doctoral candidate and cryospheric-climate expert Zack Labe. He tweeted "high pressure over the Beaufort Sea (#Arctic) is allowing for clear satellite views this week of the gorgeous swirling sea ice along the ice edge." By the way, Zach acquired this incredible image using the NASA Worldview website. If you are not familiar with this topic, I highly recommend it. I gave an assignment to my freshman seminar class at the University of Georgia, and the students were blown away by Worldview, but I digress. Let's talk sea ice swirls because I was just curious as a scientist and someone who just thought they looked cool. And speaking of cool, check out this animated GOES satellite loop from April 2017 shared with me by NOAA weather satellite Dr. Dan Lindsey. You will see the sea ice swirls (relatively stationary) compared to the cloud motion.

Before I discuss sea ice swirls, it is useful to discuss the "sea ice cycle." The NASA Earth Observatory website describes it:

Each year, Arctic sea ice grows through the winter, reaching its maximum extent around March. It then melts through the summer, reaching its minimum in September. By October, Arctic waters start freezing again.

In the image above, swirls of sea ice can be seen along the east coast of Greenland. The Fram Strait is a well-known passageway for sea ice transiting from the Arctic Ocean. Arctic sea ice volume. The Beaufort Gyre is a wind-driven current in the Arctic Ocean that regulates sea ice formation and climate in the northern polar region. NASA's website suggests that the "fence" or sea-ice trapping mechanism of the Beaufort Gyre has been disrupted in recent decades. Specifically, it says

until the late 1990s, would continue in the Gyre for years, growing thicker and more resistant to melt. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, however, it has not been possible to survive its journey south of the Beaufort Gyre. As a result, the Arctic sea ice has been able to pile up and form multi-year ice.

Sea ice swirls are found throughout the Arctic Beaufort Gyre region. Why do they swirl? In the NOAA Suomi NPP satellite image from March 8, 2018 (below), sea ice swirls are observed on the Canadian coast near the Labrador and Newfoundland provinces. At first glance, it is easy to think about swirling clouds, however, it is indeed swirling eddies (or whirls) of sea ice. Ocean currents and off-shore wind patterns can be organized by hundreds of miles or thousands of miles, depending on NOAA. It is not by accident that every example that I used in this discussion was from the fall or spring months. At these times, the sea is warm enough to be part of the ocean. Due to differences in water density, such eddies will often form along the boundaries of cold and warm currents.

As I close, check out NASA's perpetual ocean animation at this link. It is a fascinating look at big whirls, little whirls, and everything in between.