Ice growth in Hudson Bay

By Scott Bachmeier • 24 November 2015

GOES-13 Visible (0.63 µm) images [click to play animation]

GOES-13 (GOES-East) Visible (0.63 µm) images (above) showed the growth of offshore ice in the western and northwestern portions of Hudson Bay on 24 November 2015. Also evident on the imagery was cloud streets aligned with the northerly/northwesterly flow of cold arctic air over the water, as well as the presence of a mesoscale low moving southeastward. Apparently this mesoscale low was behind the primary low (with its associated trailing occluded front), which was depicted to be over the eastern portion of Hudson Bay (surface analyses) during the daylight hours of the visible imagery.

A better view of the offshore ice (as well as the ice in central Hudson Bay, northeast of the aforementioned mesoscale low) was provided by Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color and false-color images, visulized using the SSEC RealEarth web map server (below). In the false-color image, snow cover and ice appear as darker shades of cyan.

Suomi NPP VIIRS true-color and false-color images [click to enlarge]

A comparison of Canadian Ice Service analyses from 16 November and 23 November (below) showed the growth of the offshore ice along the western and northwestern edges of Hudson Bay, as well as the larger area of ice growing southward in the central portion of Hudson Bay during that 1-week period. The departure from normal images at the bottom indicated that ice concentration along the western and northwestern edges was well below normal (red), while the concentration of the large area of ice in central Hudson Bay was greater than normal (blue).

Hudson Bay ice concentration on 16 and 23 November 2015 [click to enlarge]

Hudson Bay ice concentration departure from normal on 16 and 23 November [click to enlarge]

Categories: Arctic, GOES-13, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, VIIRS, Winter weather

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Ice growth in Hudson Bay