Fresh Eyes on Ice was set up in 2018 through a National Science Foundation grant with the goal of modernizing and coordinating ice observing in Alaska. Additional NASA funding has helped the program partner with the National Weather Service and Tanana Chiefs Conference.
Spellman said the hundreds of photos the program receives help forecasters model river ice and issue warnings about floods and erosion. This year’s cold spring is concerning, she said, because the late snowpack increases the risk of ice jam flooding on Alaska’s major rivers. As the days get longer, “it’s going to cause snow to melt really rapidly, all at once. That’s the flooding danger that’s of concern this year,” Spellman said.“In climate research, those images, if you take one today, the value increases through time, because we want to see how it was in the past,” she said.
It’s still unclear exactly how climate change will affect ice and flooding, since rivers could see thinner ice growth but heavier precipitation or unpredictable freeze-thaw cycles.