Ice floes off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland

By Scott Bachmeier • 2 July 2016

Inspired by this as seen on Twitter:

Not a hurricane…sea ice caught in an eddy off of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Via a pilot friend of mine. pic.twitter.com/bpAxLqMPSN

— Kyle Roberts (@KyleWeather) July 3, 2016

we decided to take a look at some satellite imagery. GOES-13 (GOES-East) Visible (0.63 µm) images (below) captured the fluid motion of ice floes off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland on 02 July 2016.

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

A comparison of Terra MODIS true-color and false-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images viewed using RealEarth (below) aided in the discrimination of cloud vs ice/snow — in the false-color images, snow/ice appeared as shades of cyan, in contrast to supercooled water droplet clouds which appeared as shades of white.

Terra MODIS true-color and false-color images [click to enlarge]

An alternative RGB image for use in the discrimination of cloud vs snow/ice is shown below; in this particular false-color RGB image, snow/ice features appear as shades of red. Surface observations at the time of the Terra MODIS image are plotted in yellow.

Terra MODIS Visible (0.65 µm) and False-color images [click to enlarge]

2 days later, 04 July maps from the Canadian Ice Service (below) indicated that much of these larger ice floes consisted of thick first-year ice with concentrations in the range of 4-6/10ths to 8-10/10ths; the existence of such ice concentration at this particular location was 4-6/10ths to 9-10/10ths above normal.