Video
A Year at the Kugururok Climate Monitoring Station, Noatak National Preserve
Transcript
This video shows seasonal changes in the Noatak National Preserve, Alaska using time-lapse photography from the year 2019. After zooming across a satellite image of North America to northwestern Alaska, we arrive at the Noatak National Preserve, outlined in yellow. The location of the Kugururok climate monitoring station is marked by a red dot. A remote automated camera is mounted on a tripod, along with weather instruments. The time-lapse video was made from selected photos taken on days with good weather. The view is of the Kagvik Creek valley, with foothills of the Brooks Range in the background. The year begins with a snow-covered landscape. It is twilight at mid-day in January, because our location is north of the Arctic Circle. Sunshine returns in February and March, but the snow cover persists through April. The snow melts quickly in May over most of the landscape, with some drifts lasting into June. Most of the vegetation turns green in early June. Fall colors start to appear in August, when the dwarf birch shrubs in the foreground turn orange. The willow shrubs and small balsam poplar trees along the creek turn yellow and quickly lose their leaves around September first. The snow cover returns in October, and the mid-day sun fades to twilight again in December.
Description
This video was made from a full year of photographs from a remote camera (phenocam) located at the Kugururok climate monitoring station in Noatak National Preserve.
Duration
1 minute, 54 seconds
Credit
NPS/David Swanson
Date Created
05/26/2023
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