Live camera
Mount Fuji from the northern flux site live camera
A camera at a research site measuring how much carbon dioxide the forest takes up. Fuji through the trees — not the postcard composition.
Sample August 2026What you are looking at
The mountain seen from the height of an observation tower on the northern flank. The lower half of the frame is always forest, with the mountain above it.
This site was not put here for the view. A tower stands in the planted forest on the northern flank, measuring year-round how much carbon dioxide the trees take in and give out, and the camera happens to face the mountain. So there is always forest in the foreground, and the colour and volume of the leaves through the seasons fill the lower half of the frame. What is being measured is also the thing in front.
Measurement here has run since around 2000, making it one of the long-term sites in Japan for tracking how much carbon dioxide a forest takes in and gives out. The trees in front are a plantation, mostly Japanese larch; they drop their needles in winter, so December to April is when the view opens up most.
Winter mornings are the surest. From November to February the air is dry and the outline comes out sharp, and the snow cover makes the boundary between mountain and sky distinct. The average date of first snow is 2 October.
The method is called eddy covariance: the up and down motion of the air and the concentration of carbon dioxide are each measured many times a second, and the exchange of the forest is worked out from the two together. Measuring that way depends on not disturbing the wind, so the tower has to stand clear of the canopy, which is also why the camera faces the mountain from above the trees.
From sunrise to around nine. As it warms, updraughts run up the slopes and build cloud. Updates come once an hour.
About this camera
| Place | Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi |
| Format | Still, hourly |
| Time zone | Asia/Tokyo (UTC+9) |
| Category | Nature |
| Operator | Ministry of the Environment — Internet Nature Institute |
| Terms of use | PDL 1.0 |
The operator's own page
The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.