Giant UFO-like rotating ice disk in Maine increases in size after surviving winter storm and now has its own webcam
- The ice disk that formed on the Presumpscot River near Westbrook, Maine, is now being monitored through a webcam, requested by Brown University
- The webcam is taking an image of the 100-yard wide natural phenomenon once every minute to string together time-lapse videos
- The disk appeared to have grown smaller during the recent storm, but a return of colder air appears to have restored its size
Maine's giant spinning ice disk that quickly gained international fame survived the weekend's winter weather that pummeled New England and now has its own webcam.
The webcam in Westbrook monitors the disk that's been spinning in the Presumpscot River for more than a week and continues its counterclockwise rotation.
The images are hosted on MooseheadWebcams.com, a site that displays various locations around Moosehead Lake in Maine.
The Portland Press Herald reports the disk has enjoyed increased notoriety, due to its unusually large size - about 100 yards across. The disk appeared to have grown smaller during the recent storm, but a return of colder air appears to have restored its size.
Video courtesy of Chris Horvat and Brown University.
A shot of the ice disk, now showing signs of growing larger in the river, from this afternoon on the new webcam
In this Monday, January 14, aerial image taken from a drone video and provided by the City of Westbrook, Maine, a naturally occurring ice disk is seen on the Presumpscot River
'It actually looks like it grew larger last night,' Tina Radel, Westbrook’s marketing and communications manager, said on Monday.
Its accessibility in downtown Westbrook has led someone to plant a small American flag in the center and a rainbow flag near the edge.
City officials, however, have discouraged people from walking onto the ice disk, or disturbing it otherwise.
Radel says the livestream was requested by Brown University, which asked for a webcam to monitor the eventual demise of the disk.
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An image from Monday evening shows the giant ice disk in Maine from the webcam
The owner of a building that the webcam is mounted on, Rob Mitchell, gave permission and the tenant, Ethos Marketing, is allowing Brown to access its internet to stream the images.
A photo is being captured once a minute with the previous day's images edited together in a single time-lapse video available as well.
The disk had gotten stuck last Wednesday, but was later freed by a Freeport man with a paddleboard and an ice pick.
The formation in the Presumpscot River was widely shared on social media since last week and has drawn comparisons to an alien spacecraft, a carousel and the moon.
It's believed to have formed naturally in a part of the river where there's a circular current that creates a whirlpool effect, said Radel.
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