Arctic – CMOS BULLETIN SCMO

Man on a research vessel directing a part of the vessel

Modular Ocean Research Infrastructure (MORI): A Flexible, Scalable and Affordable Approach to Ocean-going Research in Canada and Worldwide

Written on March 14, 2020.

– By Dr. Doug Wallace (Scientific Director, MEOPAR) and Doug Bancroft (President and CEO, Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility)–

Research vessels (RVs) remain critical infrastructure for many classes of ocean-related research. Robots and autonomous vehicles are used increasingly for monitoring and some process-oriented research when appropriate sensors are available. However, there are also a growing number of questions related to ocean and seafloor resources, as well as complex physical, chemical, biological and atmospheric processes critical to climate change and biodiversity, which require that multidisciplinary teams of researchers can access the ocean with highly sophisticated instrumentation, from vessels.

Observing Snow from the Sky: Breakthroughs in mapping tundra snow with drones

Written on February 26, 2020.

– By Branden Walker and Philip Marsh, Cold Regions Research Centre, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario –

Snow is not evenly distributed across Arctic tundra landscapes. Strong winter winds and low-lying vegetation allow snow to easily be eroded, transported and deposited across the open landscape resulting in a heterogenous distribution of snow depth, snow density, and snow water equivalent (SWE). Understanding the distribution of snow in these environments is of upmost importance

Arctic Regional Climate Centre Consensus Statement: TEMPERATURE

Written on December 4, 2019.

– By Gabrielle Gascon¹, Katherine Wilson¹, Marko Markovic^1*, Adrienne Tivy¹, Bill Appleby¹, Vasily Smolyanitsky², Valentina Khan³, Helge Tangen⁴, Eivind Stoylen⁴, Lene Ostvand⁴, Johanna Ekman⁵, Arun Kumar⁶ and Shanna Combley⁶ –

2019 Arctic Summer Seasonal Summary and 2019-2020 Arctic Winter Seasonal Outlook for Temperature

Arctic temperatures continue to warm at more than twice the global mean. Annual surface air temperatures over the last 4 years (2014-2018) in the Arctic have been the highest on record since 1900.

The Ice at the End of the World

Written on June 22, 2019.

– Review by Phil Chadwick, Meteorologist and Eco-Artist –

By Jon Gertner, Published by Penguin Random House, Hardcover, 448 pages, ISBN 9780812996623, $28.00 (USD)

You can’t make this stuff up! In fact, hard data and science might be the best things to really believe. “The Ice at the End of the World” is a terrific read. Historians and scientists, as well as anyone concerned about the future of the planet, would find this book fascinating.

Supporting the Next Generation of Arctic Researchers

Written on March 14, 2019.

– By Chantal Mears, Dalhousie University, Halifax –

I had the pleasure of chatting with Dalhousie undergraduate student Chantal Mears at the 2018 CMOS Congress in Halifax. Chantal went on to win the ASL Environmental Sciences Best Student Poster prize (for her poster titled: Using 226Ra and 228Ra isotopes to distinguish water mass distribution in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago) at the congress, and I was not surprised. She is a great communicator and full of passion for her studies, and for working to support a better understanding of our oceans. Here, Chantal tells us a bit about the important work that she is involved with in understanding ocean dynamics in the Canadian Arctic.

Working Together for the Arctic: The Arctic Regional Climate Centre Network (ArcRCC)

Written on February 19, 2019.

– by Michael Crowe, Katherine Wilson, and John Parker –

The effects of climate change are being felt around the world, but nowhere as intensely and as obviously as in the Arctic. Many sources can be cited that put the rate of temperature increase in the Arctic over the last 30-50 years as at least twice that over the rest of the globe. These temperature increases have led to significant reductions of sea ice, thawing permafrost and coastal erosion that affect all Northerners, including Indigenous communities and industry.

Sea Ice Analysis and Forecasting: Towards an Increased Reliance on Automated Prediction Systems

Written on January 26, 2019.

– Review by André April, Environment and Climate Change Canada –

Edited by Tom Carrieres, Mark Buehner, Jean-François Lemieux and Leif Toudal Pedersen, Cambridge University Press, Hardback, 219 pages, ISBN: 9781108417426, $ 143.95 (CAD)

Sea ice is an important indicator of climate change as recent observations of declining ice amounts in the Arctic show. Automatic predictions available in real time are comparable to numerical environmental prediction models and may be very beneficial for national ice forecasting services, with applications to research and transport sectors, for example.

Ice: Nature and Culture

Written on September 17, 2018.

– Review by Bob Jones, CMOS Archivist –

By Klaus Dodds, Published by Reaktion Books, distributed by University of Chicago Press, Paperback, 229 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1-78023-905-7, $ 24.95 (USD)

Ice is not a science textbook about ice, nor is it a manual of Ice Forecasting (the reviewer will know as he was an Ice Forecaster with the Meteorological Service of Canada in a former life). Rather it is a wide-ranging exploration of the cultural, natural and geopolitical history of ice.

Polar Knowledge Canada 2018-2019 Funding Announced

Written on July 10, 2018.

Polar Knowledge Canada Announces 2018-2019 Funding for its National Northern Scientific Training Program (NSTP): 384 students to gain northern field experience through program