Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region
Tags: physical sciences, air quality, prediction models, hydrological processes, energy fluxes
| Principal Investigator: | Schuepp, Peter (1) |
| Licence Number: | 13019 |
| Organization: | McGill University - Department of Natural Resource Sciences |
| Licensed Year(s): |
1999
|
| Issued: | Mar 18, 1999 |
| Project Team: | J.I. McPherson, Institute for Aerospace Studies, NRC R.L. Desjardins, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada |
Objective(s): This project is part of the Canadian component of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) which tries to find out how the water cycle of the Mackenzie River affects and is affected by the global climate and climate change. Since the Mackenzie basin is very large and thinly populated, there is a need for observations of heat and water exchange from aircraft which can cover extended areas and relate their findings to basin-wide observations made by satellites to model predictions. Our aircraft (NRC Twin Otter) is the only one available for this kind of operation in Canada and one of the very few available in the world.
Project Description: The Twin Otter, operated by the National Research Council of Canada, will be stationed at the Inuvik Airport (most likely in the RCMP hanger). Support equipment for the aircraft and for data analysis will be shipped to Inuvik and installed at the hanger and in the Finto Hotel. No installation or infrastructure is required elsewhere in the field. Data collected from the aircraft (operating at 60m) include wind measurements (in 3 dimensions), temperature, humidity, radiation from the ground and from the sky and video observations of the surface. These observations (recorded up to 32 times per second) are stored on magnetic tape and analyzed by computer in the airplane and subsequently in the hotel. There is no interference with the surface apart from the noise of the aircraft (which operates at low speed, i.e. low power, during measurements). Observations will be at these general locations: a 15.6 km x 15.6 km grid centered at 68 40.0 N/ 133 40 W; a 24 km transect between endpoints 68 36.0 N/ 134 11.0 W and 68 30.0 N/ 134 48.0 W; a 17 km transect between endpoints 68 22.6N/ 132 48.0 W and 68 16.2 N/ 133 09.0 W; two transects from a point on Campbell Lake to the shore of the Mackenzie River at 67 25.0 N/ 133 15.0 W and at 67 15.0 N/ 132 50.0 W. The technology to derive exchange rates of heat and moisture between the earth and the atmosphere from these observation of turbulence, temperature and humidity is relatively new and rapidly evolving, our Canadian team has played (and is playing) an important part in it.
