{"id":625,"date":"2014-03-05T23:23:27","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T23:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/research\/goes-r\/proving_ground\/blog\/?p=625"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:05:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T16:05:41","slug":"great-lakes-ice-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/2014\/03\/05\/great-lakes-ice-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Lakes Ice Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The exceptionally cold winter over the Great Lakes region has led to relatively high ice coverage across the Great Lakes.&nbsp; The GLERL analysis of ice cover percentage across the Great Lakes is 91% as of March 4:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/glsea_4march2014.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-626\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/glsea_4march2014.png\" alt=\"GLERL analysis of ice cover percentage across the Great Lakes is 91% as of March 4\" class=\"wp-image-626\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/glsea_4march2014.png 1024w, https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/glsea_4march2014-300x234.png 300w, https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/glsea_4march2014-768x600.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To put this into a historical perspective, the ice coverage across the Great Lakes is highest since 1980 according to this image from the Canadian Ice Service (Environment Canada):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/20140303180000_CVCHDCTGL_0007547818.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-627\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1100\" height=\"850\" src=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/20140303180000_CVCHDCTGL_0007547818.gif\" alt=\"the ice coverage across the Great Lakes is highest since 1980 according to this image from the Canadian Ice Service (Environment Canada)\" class=\"wp-image-627\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The highest Great Lakes ice coverage is just prior to the above graph at 95% set in 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given the historical level of ice coverage across the Great Lakes, it is of interest to look at satellite imagery of the ice cover on the Great Lakes.&nbsp; First we will look at a VIIRS image (courtesy CIMSS at University of Wisconsin &#8211; Madison):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/great_lakes_ice_viirs_truecolor_5mar14.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-628\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/great_lakes_ice_viirs_truecolor_5mar14.jpg\" alt=\"satellite imagery of the ice cover on the Great Lakes\" class=\"wp-image-628\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Click on the image then click &#8220;full size is 3055 x 1499&#8221; to see the image at highest resolution.&nbsp; One of the noteworthy aspects of the image are the cracks evident in the ice evident on the Great Lakes.&nbsp; These cracks can be seen to move in animated geostationary satellite imagery from the GOES satellite (imagery provided by Dan Lindsey):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/great_lakes_ice_goes13_vis_5mar14.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-629\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1020\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/great_lakes_ice_goes13_vis_5mar14.gif\" alt=\"animated geostationary satellite imagery from the GOES satellite (imagery provided by Dan Lindsey):\" class=\"wp-image-629\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The winds at low-levels play a key role in the distribution of cracks along the ice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The exceptionally cold winter over the Great Lakes region has led to relatively high ice coverage across the Great Lakes.&nbsp; The GLERL analysis of ice cover percentage across the Great Lakes is 91% as of March 4: To put this into a historical perspective, the ice coverage across the Great Lakes is highest since 1980 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1264,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions\/1264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/proving-ground-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}