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June 2, 2023 - Thawing of Hudson Bay
May 26, 2023
March 11, 2023
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Located just south of the Arctic Circle in northeastern Canada, Hudson Bay is the world’s second-largest bay, spanning about 470,000 square miles (1,230,000 square kilometers). The far-northern location means that the saltwater bay freezes over each winter as air and sea surface temperatures become frigid. In late spring and summer, warming temperatures and long hours of sunlight cause ice to retreat. Typically, ice begins to retreat in May and the waters become ice-free sometime in July.
On May 26, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of northern Hudson Bay shedding its winter coat of ice. While ice remains floating over roughly 90 percent of the Bay, open water is visible just off the Nunavut shore (west) and around Coats Island. Clicking on the dates below the image will reveal a second Terra MODIS image, which was acquired on March 11, 2023. At that time, Hudson Bay appeared to be firmly locked under ice, which was covered by both snow and clouds in some locations.
According to AccuWeather, daily high temperatures in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada remained below freezing through May 7. After that time, they have mostly hovered around 40˚F (4.4˚C) except for May 16, 17, and 24, when they reached or exceeded 50˚F (10˚C). According to data published by AccuWeather, the daily temperatures for May 2023 in Rankin Inlet have trended several degrees above average.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 5/26/2023
Resolutions:
1km (600.8 KB), 500m (1.8 MB), 250m (5 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
May 26, 2023 March 11, 2023
Located just south of the Arctic Circle in northeastern Canada, Hudson Bay is the world’s second-largest bay, spanning about 470,000 square miles (1,230,000 square kilometers). The far-northern location means that the saltwater bay freezes over each winter as air and sea surface temperatures become frigid. In late spring and summer, warming temperatures and long hours of sunlight cause ice to retreat. Typically, ice begins to retreat in May and the waters become ice-free sometime in July.
On May 26, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of northern Hudson Bay shedding its winter coat of ice. While ice remains floating over roughly 90 percent of the Bay, open water is visible just off the Nunavut shore (west) and around Coats Island. Clicking on the dates below the image will reveal a second Terra MODIS image, which was acquired on March 11, 2023. At that time, Hudson Bay appeared to be firmly locked under ice, which was covered by both snow and clouds in some locations.
According to AccuWeather, daily high temperatures in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada remained below freezing through May 7. After that time, they have mostly hovered around 40˚F (4.4˚C) except for May 16, 17, and 24, when they reached or exceeded 50˚F (10˚C). According to data published by AccuWeather, the daily temperatures for May 2023 in Rankin Inlet have trended several degrees above average.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 5/26/2023
Resolutions:
1km (600.8 KB), 500m (1.8 MB), 250m (5 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
