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Current Lake Ice Conditions
The Canadian Ice Service (CIS) monitors Canadian lakes via remote sensing on a regular basis. Ice coverage is measured in tenths, and from this the freeze-up and break-up dates can be determined within a ± one week accuracy. The image below shows the status of a selection of these lakes at 04/17/2009.
Environment Canada does not warrant the quality, accuracy, or completeness of any information, data or product available from CCIN. It is provided "AS IS" without warranty or condition of any nature. Environment Canada disclaims all other warranties, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, with respect to the information, data, product or accompanying materials retrieved from this web site.
Special Features
Monitoring Lake Ice
Monitoring lake ice freeze-up and break-up provides a useful seasonally-integrated index of climatic change. Manual observations of lake freeze-up and break-up ("phenology") have been made at an extensive network of Canadian sites since the 1800s. Some of these data were used in a recent paper by Magnuson et al. to document consistent evidence of trends toward earlier break-up and later freeze-up over many regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The Canadian network has decreased substantially in recent years, and increasing use is being made of satellite data, particularly NOAA AVHRR and Radarsat, to monitor lake ice cover. Investigations to use passive microwave are being undertaken. The advantage of satellite data is that it provides a complete image of lake ice cover, unlike manual observations which are limited to the local-scale. Satellite data also allows lake ice monitoring to be carried out over vast uninhabited areas of Canada, thus providing useful climate information in areas without surface-based observations. The increasing resolution of climate and weather forecast models has also created a need for regular monitoring of lake ice coverage from satellite data - the amount of open water has a major impact on regional-scale processes such as lake-effect snowfall.
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