Operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks with generous support from the Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation
Utqiaġvik (Barrow) Sea Ice Radar
The image above was acquired by an 25 kW X-band marine radar mounted on top of the 4-storey bank building in downtown Utqiaġvik. Images are updated every 4 minutes. The video shows the last 24 hours of data and is updated every hour.
Past imagery and animations can be found in our google drive archive here
If you’d like to know more the radar and how it works, visit our observatory page for more info on our coastal radars.
Utqiaġvik (Barrow) Sea Ice Webcam
In addition to providing a visual impression of the sea-ice conditions off oberservatoy locations, webcam images establish a longer-term record of key dates in the seasonal evolution of the sea-ice cover, such as: onset of fall ice formation, formation of a stable ice cover, onset of spring melt, appearance of melt ponds, beginning of ice break-up in early summer, removal or advection of sea ice during the summer months.
This image has been recorded by a web cam overlooking the landfast ice (or coastal ocean during the ice-free period in summer) from atop the bank building in downtown Barrow, Alaska. The camera is located at 71° 17′ 33″ N, 156° 47′ 18″ approximately 20m above sea level and looks approximately Northward.
Apart from providing a visual impression of the sea-ice conditions off Barrow, these images establish a longer-term record of key dates in the seasonal evolution of the sea-ice cover, such as: onset of fall ice formation, formation of a stable ice cover, onset of spring melt, appearance of melt ponds, beginning of ice break-up in early summer, removal or advection of sea ice during the summer months.
The Utqiaġvik Sea Ice Radar is supported as part of the Integrated System for Operations in Polar Sea (ISOPS) through a collaborative project between UAF and the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (US Department of the Army BAA W912HZ-20-BAA-01).
We are also grateful for telecommunication support provided by the Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative (ASTAC) and to the Arctic Slope Regional Cooperation (ASRC) for use of the bank building in Utqiaġvik.
Archived Data
Visit our Utqiaġvik (Barrow) sea ice data archive to browse images and animations.
- Images are archived every 4 minutes and movies are compiled every 3 days.
- The radar is back online but the archive may take some time to catchup.