Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area
Tags: physical sciences, climatology, permafrost, climate change, glaciology, pingo
| Principal Investigator: | Burn, Chris R (36) |
| Licence Number: | 14641 |
| Organization: | Carleton University |
| Licensed Year(s): |
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| Issued: | Feb 05, 2010 |
Objective(s): The principal objective of this work is to determine how permafrost conditions in the western Arctic will respond to climate change.
Project Description: The principal objective of this work is to determine how permafrost conditions in the western Arctic will respond to climate change. The researchers have been collecting data on ground temperatures and how they vary under different snow covers. They have also obtained ground temperatures to depths of 50 m to see how far the ground has warmed up with the warming of air temperature since 1970. They also study conditions in the ground such as ground cracking in winter, to find out how that is controlled, and they have been measuring the growth of a small pingo at Illisarvik that has been growing for 14 years. Most of the field work uses simple measurements made over a long period to tell how the environment is changing. They measure snow depth and ice thicknesses in the winter, ground temperatures by data loggers and on cables already installed in the ground, air temperatures using data loggers placed in radiation shields, and they measure the distances between many bench marks, and the tilt of these bench marks. They download their data loggers in the summer. At the end of the summer they probe the ground to determine how much has thawed out each year. They have made several posters that have been distributed to agencies throughout the western Arctic (Parks Canada, Inuvik, Paulatuk; Herschel Island Park, Inuvik and Herschel Island). They annually attend the Science in the Changing North Conference in Yellowknife. They are in the process of preparing a plain language book on their work in collaboration with Steve Kokelj, to be published by DIAND. They are organizing a similar effort with regards to Herschel Island-Qikiqtaruk. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from February to December 31 2010, on Garry Island, Illisarvik, Paulatuk (near the community), Inuvik (adjacent to Dempster Highway near the airport), Red Lake, Bar C, Seal Lake, and Dennis Lagoon.
